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Simple Preschool in the Kitchen

preschool in kitchen

Get ready for a list of preschool fun in the kitchen! These simple activities can provide a variety of learning experiences for your little one.

The inspiration for this really started a few weeks back when I could really sense that my almost-four-year old was eager to start learning more. I previously told myself I wasn’t going to start anything formal this year, because I wanted her to just be a kid and PLAY and have fun and pretend with her sisters! However, I was really feeling a push to work with her a bit because I knew she was excited for it.

Of course, I immediately began thinking of what kind of work she could do, but wasn’t sure how I’d fit in the time to sit down with her while also keeping my 2 year old happy. And then it hit me, “Jaimie – stop taking this so seriously, and just PLAY with her!”

So that’s what we did. I was so inspired that I spent all last week coming up with fun things for us to do in the kitchen together, her favorite place to be with me. Some of these activities include the option of different learning manipulatives, but others are just kitchen tools. We had such a blast, and you know what? It was perfect! The best part – when my two year old was with us, he joined in as well! That’s a win-win!

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Why Kitchen Tools?

I don’t know what it is about my kitchen tools, but my kids are always taking them and playing with them. Is that just in my house? They pretend and do who-knows-what with them, and unfortunately I lose a few.

What is so intriguing about the kitchen stuff? Maybe there’s something about it that makes them feel “big” or just like mom. It’s just the perfect, simple hands-on fun that requires no prep!

Take it from an experienced mother that is missing tools on a regular basis. (ha!) Set some rules and boundaries. We eventually had to do this, and they are pretty good about asking permission and caring for my kitchen stuff now. OR! If you don’t want them using your things, head to the dollar store. Make a kitchen tub full of utensils that you can pull out and play with at any time! (Here’s an inexpensive set from Amazon – but maybe take out the cheese grater and can opener for safety reasons!)

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Mixing and Scooping

For this activity we used a mixing bowl, puzzle pieces, a whisk, and a measuring cup. Place all of the puzzle pieces in the bowl. Encourage your child to mix the pieces around with the whisk. Next, scoop a piece (or more!) out of the bowl. Talk about what it is – are you doing letters? numbers? colors? maybe animals? Ask questions about what was chosen. Then, place it in the correct spot in the puzzle.

We used two puzzles. One was shapes and the other was letters. If she drew a shape we talked about the name of the shape and it’s color. If she drew a letter, she identified it and we practiced the sound and gave some examples of words that start with that sound.

This was so fun, and she played until all the pieces were out!

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Sorting

One morning I placed three identical bowls on the table and gathered up my magnetic alphabet letters. I picked three colors and set the rest aside. We mixed the three colors of letters in a cooking pot and used a cookie scoop to scoop them out and sort them into a bowl.

A cookie scoop! Something so simple, but it was such a hit. She did it over and over and loved popping the letter out by squeezing the scoop. I placed one letter of each color in the bowl when we started so she would know which color went to which bowl. We would talk about the letters she scooped. Sometimes we’d say the sounds. It was so fun!

My two year old saw the action and wanted in, so I just gave him a bowl of letters and the cookie scoop to explore. The cookie scoop now in his hands, my daughter begged to continue playing, so she settled for an ice cream scoop instead and had just as much fun.

I’m not sure why, but using real tools in the kitchen is a blast to them!

You don’t have to use letters. Craft poms would be great or if you have counting bears, that would work also. You could honestly take a sheet of paper, cut it into squares and crumble the squares in a ball. Don’t make this complicated. Use what you have! Here’s a fun idea! Write a color or shape on that crumbled paper and have your kiddo open it up and then sort it! I may do this again and try that!

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Pretend Restaurant

Ok, so this one was a little silly, but we had a ball! You’re going to have to get in there and pretend right along with them. They’ll love it!

So we pretended to be at a restaurant while in our kitchen. My preschooler was the waitress/cook (I was her helper) and she seated her siblings at the kitchen table.

I prepped very quickly. First I had a big pot of colored blocks on the stove with a big spoon. Second, I had a baking sheet with the magnetic letters (A-Z) stuck to the sheet in a random order. I put that baking sheet in the oven – seriously! It makes the pretend play so real!

Do we need to have a safety talk? Please please please make sure your kitchen stove and oven are off. Also, be clear to your children that they can’t be touched or open without your permission in the future. OK, let’s keep going.

I told my big girls they could choose one thing – blocks or letters, and their order could be something like this…

  • “I’d like 4 blue blocks please.”
  • “Yes, I’d like an E and an X”

My preschooler was in heaven. She took one order at a time and then went to “her kitchen” and prepared them on a paper plate.

Once she got the hang of it, I encouraged her siblings to challenge her without frustrating her. So, maybe 2 red blocks and 4 green blocks. Or, an “A” and 1 blue block. We went back and forth ordering, and I’ll tell you what – guess who else wanted to play?! Her big sisters!

Want to know how I changed it for them? I made a quick menu of 6 CVC words for my first grader. She gave the menu to her siblings and they ordered a word. My daughter wrote it down, went to the oven, and made the word from the letters on the baking sheet and sent it to them. So fun!

My third grader (Yes, even she wanted in on it!) is fun to challenge. I gave her a pencil and paper and started ordering lots of things. She quickly wrote it down and then organized it on a plate. We had a good time making her work hard 😉

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Sink Play

This is the one thing that will keep my toddler (2yo) busy for a long time, and my almost-four-year old loves it just as much. I have a big, wide sink, and I put two large mixing bowls inside of it. I put soapy water in one and water in the other.

Collect toys around your house that you don’t mind getting wet. Most recently we’ve done cars or dinosaurs. Do you have those floating bath letters? That would be fun, as well!

I place a good, sturdy chair in front of the sink for them to stand on and show my them how to wash the toys and rinse them off. I also make sure to give them a spot to set them to dry.

Their clothes may get a little wet and you might get some extra water around your sink, but the mess is worth it. This is a winner! It’s important to stick around nearby as some of the splashing can get slippery, so a hand towel on-the-ready would be a good practice.

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Kitchen Tongs and an Egg Carton

I always have empty egg cartons handy. They’re great for paint because you can just throw them away, but one morning we used them to sort blocks.

I gave my daughter our bucket of colored blocks and a pair of kitchen tongs and showed her how to grab a block and put it in the egg carton. It’s so simple, but once again, so entertaining for little ones. My two year old joined her and they moved blocks from one place to the other while I got ready for the day.

Once she filled the carton we tried filling it with only one color. Then we tried one row red, one row, green, and one row blue. You could also do patterns or finding the same shape.

Just like some of these other activities, the colored blocks isn’t a must. Try unifix cubes or counting bears or Legos. All you need is something small enough to fit in the egg spot.

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Flipping Pancakes

I found this idea online a few years ago, and it is the cutest! I did it with my older girls when they were little, and I was so excited to do it again.

First, I used a cup to trace a few circles on a brown colored sheet of paper. Then, I stacked about 3 sheets behind it so I could cut them all together to make lots of circles! Now, you have pancakes.

Write whatever you want on the circles. To be honest, all three of my girls begged to do this when I got it out, so I changed it up for each child.

For my preschooler, I wrote a letter on each brown circle. On the back of a few of them I drew a shape. (This was a little surprise for her) I spread the pancakes out on our griddle and got her all set up with a chair so she could reach. I called out a letter and she flipped the pancake with a spatula. I told her some of them have a surprise shape on the back, and she thought that was the best!

You can change up the surprise – make it a sticker or a stamp. She loved flipping them to find out. I think she played three or four times before I finally had to stop her so her older sisters could try.

Setting it up for the older ones was simple. I just put some of their math problems from the lesson of the day and wrote the answer on the other side. (Then of course we skipped that part in the workbook! The game took it’s place)

Float or Sink

This demonstration is very simple. I use a clear container, but you could also just fill up your sink. Fill the container with water and go around your house finding items to put in the water. Before you put an item in the water, make a prediction. Will the item float or sink?

This has to do with density. If an item is more dense than water, it will sink. If it is less dense it will float. You could talk about what density is, but that may be over their head. Take it as far as you want though. You never know how much they’re soaking in!

Pouring Water

This is one you definitely want to do when you have some space in your day. It can end up quite messy, but it’s only water so it won’t hurt!

I usually lay a couple of towels on the kitchen floor (or outside) and gather a variety of bowls, scoops, spoons, and cups. Next, I’ll fill one or two of the items with water. I show my child how to pour back and forth between bowls and cups, and then let them be!

There will be spills! But it’s just water. There are times when I just let them be on their own to explore and play but you could definitely be more intentional about it as well. For example, pouring 1/4 cup of water into one cup four times to demonstrate what 1/4 means. We like to play a game where I say something like, “How many of this cup do you think it will take to fill that bowl to the top?” We make predictions and test it out.

When you’re done and the towel is soaking wet, just use it to mop your floor up a bit! 😉

Playing is Learning

I had so much fun with my littles (and bigs!) in the kitchen this week. It’s crazy to me how much you can learn just by playing with a few letters or blocks. The best part – basically no prepping! (The pancake one took maybe 3 minutes to get ready) It was so easy to just grab this stuff in my kitchen and go!

Let me know if you try any of these out! Leave a comment or tag me on Instagram @simply.learning.together I love hearing from you guys!

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Homeschooling after the Holidays

homeschooling

The holidays have come and gone, and I have mixed feelings about starting up our homeschool again. First, I’m anxious to get back into our groove. I’m just craving the routine that provides a peace of mind for me and everyone else in my home. Second, I’m having a hard time letting go of the slow, easy-going days we spent together in December. I’ll miss that, and I’m so thankful for the time we spent doing it.

So, here I am knowing I need to plan and really kick things into gear. The day before we started school my husband and I decided to move our homeschool room (again!), so that was an unexpected but exciting change. Now, it’s a matter of figuring out how I want our days to play out and what my goals are.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Morning Time/Morning Basket

We did a Christmas study for or morning time in December, and I loved it so much I purchased another curriculum from the same creator. We had such great conversations, and I learned so much with the kids that I was eager to do more like it.

We are going to try Foundations of the Bible by Driven by Grace. If you aren’t familiar with it, she created the program to go along with the Classical Conversations cycles. Now, we are no longer in CC, but the content is great for anyone! I’m so excited to get started.

I’m curious to see how we will work through it, since we are not bound to a week-by-week schedule through CC. We can move through it as quick or slow as we like, so I can keep you posted on how that goes for us. She lists many other sources to learn from (books, movies, children’s bibles) so I imagine I may look into that as well.

For our other Morning basket items, we will continue with our poetry book. (“Poems to Learn by Heart” by Caroline Kennedy) It’s not my favorite, but we all do really enjoy hearing what our poem of the day is. I really want to find something like we read last year, Sing a Song of Seasons. That book is so beautiful and we loved it! For now, we will stick with what we have.

Most days I throw in something related to our unit studies during our morning time. This is a picture book most of the time, and that has really been a great addition, so we will continue to do that. This is all based on what we find at our library.

christian light education math

Math/ Language Arts Curriculum Changes

I shared all of our curriculum choices for the year in a YouTube video, and we have made some changes here and there throughout the first half of our school year.

My third grader is now using Christian Light Education for math, and we love it! (We stopped Horizons math after 3 years of using it) Read more about that journey in my blog post.

She continues to use Learning Language Arts through Literature, but I’ve also added in a grammar practice workbook to help review different skills. It’s not spectacular, but it’s accomplishing what I want. Every once in a while I take a step away from the workbooks and do something different – like a lesson related to our current unit or something random, like diagramming, because I think it’s fun to spice things up here and there!

My first grader continues to use Christian Light Education for math. She worked hard to complete the Foundations A program from Logic of English, so we will be starting the Foundations B after the holidays (Read about Foundations A here) I’ve also purchased the handwriting book from Logic of English, Rhythm of Handwriting. I don’t think we will do this every day, but I noticed she was ready to start writing more, so we are going to try it.

mummify apples

History/Science

Looking back it’s so interesting to see how my teaching style has changed and adjusted this last year. For a brief background, we were in Classical Conversations for two years prior to this one, so this was my first time in a while to do my own History and Science choices.

I had an idea of what I wanted at the beginning, and we loved it, but as we have done more and more unit studies I am really discovering what I love doing and reading for our units.

If you haven’t seen any of our unit studies, check out a few of the ones below:

I am loving the unit study model for us, so we will kick off the year with a Vikings unit that I’m really looking forward to and I’m thinking the Middle Ages after that. Looking ahead into the spring, I have an idea of a couple more history units I may want to do, but I’m open to making changes as needed.

For science, I’m still deciding. Our first one won’t be until March, and we will be studying CHICKENS! We are planning to add more chicks to our flock, and I’m super pumped to get the kids more involved now that this is my second time around. Last year was our first time raising chicks and it was quite the learning experience.

So, technically I only have a loose plan until the start of April, and as we get closer I’ll plan more. I just don’t like to plan too far ahead because we change! Our interests change, our schedules change, the weather changes. I like to get closer to the Spring before I plan through the end of the year. I have possibilities in my head that I’ll be praying about but my final decision will come later.

Daily Routine

I’m not going to lie, after being out of routine for so long I really have to think about how we ended before break…Our schedule is not based off the time. It’s more of a loose rhythm. However, our routine changes with the seasons we are in whether that’s the ACTUAL season (winter to spring) or a season in our family (birthdays, napping schedules, health). Below is what has worked for us lately.

  • Wake-up
  • Breakfast
  • Morning Checklist/Chores
  • Independent Work
  • Morning Time
  • Outside
  • Math
  • Language Arts
  • Lunch
  • Catch-up/Extra Activity

We school four days a week and meet with a nature/adventure group on Fridays, and we plan to continue with that through the end of the year.

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Slow Start

My plan is not to jump into everything at once. Honestly, after Christmas my brain just wasn’t quite ready to get into full swing with a unit study and all the planning that goes with that.

For the last few days I’ve been more strict about my kids’ chores and morning checklist so that we can get that situated before we start. (I’m hoping to get a post soon about our checklist.) Over Christmas break that kind of just washed away – which is fine! – but we know everything runs better when we all work together to take care of our home, and that’s an easy thing for me to work back in before we start.

Then, we will have a slow first week completing only our Morning Time, Math, and Language Arts. This will also be a great opportunity for me to get a feel for how our rhythm is working and if I need to make any changes.

My goal is to make a trip to the library at some point during our first week back so that we can collect the books for our upcoming Vikings unit which we will begin the following week.

Happy New Year!

Have you started planning ahead? Do you have any new goals? I’m not a resolution kind of girl, but I do love setting some new goals!

I have a few, and one of them is to write more blog posts! I have loved sharing more of our homeschool with you guys this last month, and I’m hoping to continue that through the start of this year.

I’m so happy you are following along with us and I wish you a happy new year! May 2023 be filled with beautiful memories with your family!

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The Christmas Pig – Book Review

book review

We read two novels together as a read aloud for Christmas this year. The first was “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (find the review for that one here) and the second was “The Christmas Pig” by J.K. Rowling.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Why “The Christmas Pig”?

Well, I’ll be honest. As a Harry Potter fan, the author of this novel was a HUGE reason I wanted to try it. I haven’t read anything else by J.K. Rowling and I was so curious what another novel of hers would be like.

I also wanted a Christmas-themed novel. This book, of course, takes place during Christmas. It’s also a newer novel, published in 2021, so I was eager to check out a new story.

What is the Book About?

The book follows the adventures of a young boy and his toy pig. At the beginning of the story the boy goes through some difficult changes with his family when his parents split up. This leads him to become more and more reliant on the comfort of his toy pig.

Right before Christmas, his toys come alive and take him on an incredible adventure through the Land of the Lost to search for something very special, but he must make it back in time or else be lost forever.

Age Group

I read this out loud to my three girls who are 8, 6, and almost 4. My older two loved it and begged me to read another chapter every night. My four year old enjoyed it as well. I’m not sure how much she caught on, but she looked forward to reading each night.

I also enjoyed this book as an adult. There are some pretty abstract concepts when you get further into the book. I don’t want to give it away, but things like happiness, and hope, and ambition were terms used for some of the characters that really got me thinking deeply. I don’t believe my children could completely grasp what each thing was. However, they understood in a simple way. As an adult, it was just interesting to really wrestle with the different concepts in my mind as they related to the story.

Although this story is about a young boy and his toys, I do feel like middle school children (4th-6th graders) would enjoy this. There is a lot of adventure, and the story keeps you on your toes which I feel like would be something a middle schooler would definitely enjoy.

Warnings/ Concerns

I always like to share concerns about the book if I have any. A lot of times people want to read these out loud to children so it may be helpful to be aware of any red flags. This book really didn’t have many concerns for me so I’m really digging deep here to tell you some things.

The book kind of started a little sad and slow for me. Almost immediately we find out that the boy’s family is splitting up, and it doesn’t really give you that Christmas-spirit-feel. However, get a few chapters in and you’ll be turning pages quickly!

The word “stupid” is used a few times, but that’s about as bad as the language gets. I don’t remember any bad words coming up.

It may also be helpful to know that the Land of the Lost is mostly not a happy place. It could cause some fear in really young children, especially the Loser, which is the bad guy of the Land of the Lost. He is known to kill toys by eating them.

The only other thing I can think of is what I mentioned earlier about the words like “ambition” and “happiness”. It’s nothing bad at all. As an adult it really brought some depth to the story, but it may be harder for young minds to completely grasp.

An Honest Review

As I mentioned in the previous section, I felt like the book started out a little slow. Once we got a few chapters in, I really loved it. It was easy to read and hard to put down.

The chapters are very short, so we were reading 2-3 each night. If it wasn’t bed time, I probably would have read even more.

I love the way J.K. Rowling writes. The way she describes things is so detailed that you can actually picture it in your head. She makes the fantasy worlds seem so real that even I thought twice about what happened to a broken toy after I threw it out. It’s just crazy to me how she can make such an imaginary thing seem so real.

I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for an adventurous read this Christmas!

Listen to the Audio Book

The book was a little long for my taste (reading to little ones). We weren’t able to finish it by Christmas so I had the idea to get the book on Audible and finish it as we drove out of town on Christmas Day.

I am SO glad that we did this because the audio book was amazing! There was a different voice for every character as well as the narrator. There were also background noises which really made it feel like we were in a movie.

I honestly wish we would’ve listened to it from the beginning. It was so wonderful! My kids loved it so much and were so engaged. I need to find other audio books that are made like it, because we really enjoyed listening!

Just as a heads up – the Loser in the audio book is a little bit loud and scary. The shrill voice is quite ear piercing, but it really adds a level of excitement/fear to the story listening to it like that.

Final Thoughts

We loved this book and we loved the audio book even more! The kids were sad when it ended and actually asked to read it again the night after we finished.

I overheard them one day playing and imagining a whole scenario using the details from the book. I feel like that’s when you know it’s a good one. It’s one they still think about even after they’re done reading. It’s a book that expands their imagination and gives them an entire new world to play in.

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December 2022 Homeschool Highlights

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I’ve had the best time sharing our homeschool highlights with my email list this month. So much so that I’ve decided to make them into a blog post.

So, if you receive my emails, you’ve probably read through these already. Although it’s a year away, you can pin this page for ideas for next year, if you’re interested.

If you like what you see and you’re not on the email list, be sure to scroll down and sign up! I love chatting with you guys and I love sharing about our homeschool with you. I’m so glad you’re following along with us.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Here’s what we are….

Imagine each section starting with this statement. We are diving in to multiple senses here, and I’ll be sharing what we are eating, hearing, doing, thinking, watching, and reading!

READING

1 – We started a new Christmas read aloud, “The Christmas Pig”. It’s written by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, so I am very interested to read through it!

2 – I recently picked up an oldie yet a goodie to read this season. The book, “Women of Christmas” is one I read with an amazing group of women at a bible study. I enjoyed it so much a couple years ago, and it has been the perfect, easy read for me during my morning devotion time this year. This book is written by Liz Curtis Higgs and focuses on the stories of Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna pertaining to the Christmas story. She goes verse by verse and I love how she incorporates different versions, as well. It’s definitely a book I can see myself reading again and again!

Before

DOING

1- I went to the Dollar Tree last week and bought plain, wooden nutcrackers for $3. They were unpainted and perfect for a fun craft. The girls and I have been working on painting them the last few days to gift to some people. They are turning out so cute. I love handmade gifts like this and the fact that they were only $3 a piece is even better!

I did see the same type of nutcrackers on Amazon. You can purchase a few of them for a pretty great price. Check it out here. I will say that the Amazon ones seem a little smaller than the ones I found at Dollar Tree.

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2 – Each afternoon when my youngest goes down for a nap I try to choose one thing to do with my girls to celebrate the season. Sometimes it’s as simple as read a book together or color a picture. Other times it’s more elaborate and messy, like painting! Our favorite activity from this past week was making paper snowflakes. What a simple craft that brings so much joy and fun! I’ll link for you the site where I found some templates that helped us with the designs. For the last couple years we have made these and we tape a string to them and hang them on the ceiling above our kitchen table. It’s our own little Winter Wonderland in Texas.

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EATING

1 – We made a nativity lunch this past week, and it turned out so cute. Check it out in my Christmas Picture books blog post!

2 – This week was all about the puppy chow (or muddy buddies some may call it)! We made three different batches. One we enjoyed for ourselves, but the others were to share with loved ones. I’ll link the recipe I found. I really like to keep puppy chow simple. I don’t like adding in extra things. I will say that I may have changed the 1/2 cup of peanut butter to a “heaping” 1/2 cup and the other change was that I like to use a different cereal for my puppy chow. Have you heard of Crispix? It’s half corn, half rice. It’s a little crunchier and more airy than the Rice Chex, and I like it better! Give it a try if you’ve never had it. We love it!

HEARING

1 – Last weekend, I was with some friends and the topic of the Proverbs 31 woman was brought up. I’m familiar with it, but there was something in my heart that wanted to dig deeper. I felt like I knew it but didn’t KNOW it…if you get what I mean. Anyway, it’s been on my heart a lot this last week as I’ve studied it and prayed about it.

Well, not too long after that, I came across a podcast related to the same topic by an author that I really love. She opens up the podcast describing Proverbs 31 as the chapter that both “encourages and discourages women…” She does an awesome job diving in to each verse and talking about it with today’s world in mind. It really gave me a sense of peace about the chapter, and I hope it can do the same for you.

2 – I’m far from planning ahead for homeschool in January. I want to get through Christmas first, but I did listen to a great podcast from Read Aloud Revival that talked about simplifying our curriculum choices. It was very encouraging and helpful. She even asked, “If you could only keep five things for your homeschool, what would it be?” That’s a big question! Could you answer? I thought about it for a while, and I think I have a good list. I know I’ll be keeping her tips in mind as I plan after the holiday break.

WATCHING

1 – One day last week called for a picnic lunch and a movie. The kids watched “Superbook: The First Christmas”. If you’re not familiar with the series, I highly recommend it. Two kids and a goofy robot travel back in time to experience bible stories together. We saw the episode on the Prime app, but I believe the Superbook YouTube channel has full episodes as well.

2 – I’m so excited to share this one! Have you ever read, “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey”? It’s a beautiful Christmas story that is loved by many! We added it to our home library last year, but this year I discovered there’s a movie! We watched it last week, and it’s awesome! It’s just as sweet and wholesome as the story. There’s definitely some differences but the main part of the story is there and it really was so well done! If you’re bored of the usual Christmas movies or if you need something simple this week as you eagerly await Christmas – read the book and watch the movie! It’s so good. Oh! And the best part is it’s FREE on the Prime app right now.

THINKING

1 – This holiday season I cut out some of the extra subjects in order to keep this season flexible. I’ll be honest, we are a little over two weeks into the month and my feet are dragging each morning to complete our work. So, I’ve decided to wrap up our math and language arts units at the beginning of this week and leave the rest of December for some Christmas fun with my kids.

I hope to read more books, bake a little, and create some simple crafts. However, if I wake up and feel it necessary to just rest, I’ll do that too. What I’m really thinking is – I’m ready for the break. So we are taking it early! (Just a few days!) And I’m not sad about it. I’m really looking forward to making memories with the kids the next couple weeks.

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2 – The other day I asked my 3-year-old to pick up all the nativity pieces off the floor and set them up in their spot. A couple hours later, I walked past her set up and I was looking at the backs of the majority of the pieces. (see photo) The wise men and the stable animals were facing the “wrong direction”. I was used to seeing them all set out nicely to the side so you can see all their faces, and then it hit me. They’re looking at the baby Jesus. Isn’t that just like this busy season? We’re trying to line everything up perfectly and check all of our to-dos to make sure everything is just right. In this moment, I’m stopped in my tracks as I learn a lesson from my little one. The goal is to look at baby Jesus. That’s the real message of the season. Although I may fail at times, it was just the message I needed in that moment.

Rejoice in the birth of our Lord and Savior. May the blessings of Christ be upon you and your loved ones this season and into the New Year.

Merry Christmas!

This Month’s New Blog Posts

Christmas Homeschool 2022

Homeschool Math Curriculum Switch

Logic of English Foundations A Review

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Book Review

Inexpensive Christmas Cards for $30

Christmas Picture Book Activities

Our Favorite Christmas Party Games

Practical Stocking Stuffers for Learning and Creativity

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Practical Stocking Stuffers for Learning and Creativity

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I tend to be a practical gift giver, choosing gifts that are fun but also useful and helpful to our home. As a homeschool family with four kids, I like to strategize my gift-giving when I can! As I come up with them, I’m thinking about how it might contribute to our day. What is something that my kids will enjoy but it will also help me in our daily routines?

Anyone can benefit from looking through this list, not just homeschoolers. However, this won’t be your typical, socks and underwear and candy-filled stocking. I’ll be adding some ideas that will be fun for kids but helpful to mom (or dad) during a homeschool day.

I’ll be thinking of educational tools to help us learn, activities to entertain my little ones, and fun, educational games or activities my older children can enjoy on their own or during a quiet time.

I have four children. The oldest is 8 and the youngest is two, so these ideas could be for a variety of ages. I’ll also point out that I am by no means purchasing all of these things! A stocking is only so big and I have a budget to keep in mind. This is more of a brainstorm list to share with others.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

little ones stocking stuffers

For your little ones (under 4)

Water Wow – We have a couple of these. Not only are they entertaining. They have lasted over the years.

Stamps – They come in a wooden box, but open them up and throw them in the stocking with a small stamp pad. My little ones love using stamps!

Dot Markers – same idea as the stamps. If the box doesn’t fit, open it! I got one box to split between my youngest two.

Flashcards: Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes… (We have a few of these. I don’t use them to drill my toddlers, we just get them out for fun! Sometimes we match or just talk about them. I enjoy having them.)

Toddler Scavenger Hunt

Uno Junior

Play Doh – If your play doh is anything like mine it’s all mixed up or dried up. Now is a good time to stock up on a few fresh ones 😉

stocking stuffers for learning

For your bigger kids (4-10)

LCD Writing Tablet – this would be fun to do math problems or write sentences, an easy way to mix things up. It could also just be used for quiet time, car rides, or just for fun. The one I’m linking is the smaller version (8.5 inches) so it slides nicely into that stocking!

Rainbow Scratch Paper

Cat’s Cradle – I’m not sure if I want this for them or for me – hello childhood! (LOL)

Dice Game – We use dice all the time. I love how this set can be used as regular dice but it’s also a game in itself.

Flashcards/Card Games – I love card games, and they’re great for learning but also for family fun! There are so many out there. Here’s a few that stick out to me:

Clicks Markers – I’m so pumped about this. This is a definitely-getting item for me. We are always losing marker caps and drying out markers. I’m so excited to try these out!

Chapter Book – Check out a few of our favorites here

Book Light – All 3 of my girls have one of these and use it every night before bed!

Bananagrams – I’ve heard great things about this one. They also have a “My First” version for early readers that I am considering.

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Our Favorite Christmas Party Games

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For the past few years, I’ve thrown myself a big Christmas/birthday party to celebrate with my family. We love to get together for the holiday, and Christmas Eve is also my birthday! As a kid, I wasn’t a big fan of having my birthday on a holiday, especially Christmas. Once I had my own kids, I just love filling the day with fun games, family gift exchanges, and lots of sweets! It’s been really special and something I look forward to every year.

We’ve played a variety of games over the last few years, so I’m sharing some of those with you in this post. My goal when looking for Christmas party games is to find one that doesn’t require expensive supplies and one that isn’t going to add more stress to an already busy season.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

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Oven Mitt Unwrapping

This game is one we do every year. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s my kids favorite. It’s easy for them to participate in and since this is a family friendly party – this game is a winner.

In order to set this up correctly you’ll need 3-4 different sized boxes. (A lot of times I use boxes from my pantry, like a cereal box!) You also need 2-3 types of wrapping paper and plenty of tape. My suggestion would be to get these at your dollar store!

I’ve done different items for the gift. It’s usually a small gift card or just something that says “WINNER!” and I’ll have some baked goods to send home for the winner. I keep it pretty simple.

Place the gift in the smallest box. Wrap the box in multiple layers with different types of paper. You choose the amount (Just remember there’s still a lot of wrapping to do!). Next, place that box into the other box and begin wrapping that second box in multiple layers. If you have a third, bigger box, follow the same procedure.

Now you’re ready to play. You’ll want to sit in a circle on the floor or around a table. One person has the gift and a pair of oven mitts. (This is another great dollar store purchase, but these cheap ones from Amazon may do the trick as well!) The next player (to the left) has two dice. Play begins when the player with the dice starts rolling. While this is taking place, the player with the oven mitts will be trying to unwrap as much and as fast as possible. The play stops when doubles are rolled (two of the same number). At this point, the dice are passed to the left and the gift and mitts are passed to the left.

Move quickly! As soon as the next person starts rolling and gets doubles, you have to pass again. The game continues in this way until someone gets their hands on the actual gift inside. This can get really exciting and the best part is no one really knows how much wrapping paper or boxes there are!

4-5-6

Another game we love to play is 4-5-6. I believe it sells in the stores by the name of “Left, Right, Center”. We just grew up calling it something else!

We play for cash with this one, and it’s so much fun. All players that want to play must have 3 one dollar bills. This is a jackpot game so you may or may not go home with that money! The game also requires one set of three dice.

Sit in a circle with your three dollars in front of you. Whoever is first rolls the three dice. If it’s a 4: one dollar goes to the left. If it’s a 5: one dollar goes to the right. If it’s a 6: one dollar goes to the middle.

Now, those are the rules but there are so many different scenarios that could happen. For example, if you roll two 5’s and a 3 then two dollar bills go to your right and you get to keep one. If you roll three 6’s then all three of your dollar bills go to the middle.

The other rule you have to remember is you only roll as many dice as you have dollars. So, if you lost a dollar on your last turn then you only roll two dice on your next turn.

The trick is you want to stay in your circle, even if you lose your money. You never know if a dollar or two will be passed in your direction. The last person with a dollar that doesn’t roll it away WINS!

Here is a link to a video that shows a great visual to the game. In the video, they are using the LRC dice (instead of regular dice) and instead of dollars they use chips.

Jingle in the Trunk

You need empty tissue boxes for this one, the regular size. I think it’s more fun when you put two people up against each other, so you may want to have a couple boxes for this game.

To prepare for the game you’ll need to poke a hole on each side of the tissue box so that you can put a small rope or string through it and tie it around your waist. You’ll want the tissue box opening to face outward and the bottom of the box will be resting on your back side.

Some people fill the box with jingle bells (hence the name). You might be able to find something like that at the dollar store but I believe when we played we used candy, like Hershey kisses. Put a handful inside the box and play your favorite Christmas music.

The person(s) with the box around their waist will dance like crazy to try and get everything to fly out of the tissue box. Whoever gets the most candy out in a certain time – I’d shoot for 20-30 seconds – is the winner.

mystery gift exchange

Mystery Gift Exchange

I learned this game at a bible study once and it was a lot of fun, so I shared it with my family last year. The game does have an “ultimate prize”, so you can decide what that is. The rest of the parts come from the participants.

I told my family to bring a gift that could fit into a brown lunch bag. Now, to make it even simpler, I set a rule that you couldn’t buy anything. So people brought a coffee mug, coozie, portable fan, a rat trap…there was some interesting stuff! Nothing was new and it was small enough to fit in the brown paper bag.

Before the game started, I set each item in a bag and stapled it shut so no one could see what it was. We sat in a circle and began to play.

Two dice are needed and everyone takes turn rolling the two dice and following the directions below:

  • DOUBLES: switch bags with someone OR make two people switch
  • ROLL 5: All bags go one to the right
  • ROLL 9: All bags go three to the left
  • SNAKE EYES: The ultimate Prize and Game Over

Depending on the dice, this game could be quick or take much longer. The neat part about it is everyone goes home with something! One way you could stall the game is to have a bag of candy ready to give to the first person to roll snake eyes. Then the second person could be the winner.

You can see in the photo I have the gift in the middle, a list of directions, and a couple bags of candy to stall if we needed to.

Best Christmas Games

This year I’ve decided to keep it simple and stick to our two favorite: oven mitt unwrapping and 4-5-6. These two games are a lot of fun and everyone can play, including the kids! Have you played any games like this? What are your favorites?

You know, I would definitely call myself competitive so I love playing games. Most importantly, I just love the memories shared playing these games with my family. I love that my kids get to experience the joy and excitement of participating with us, and it makes my holiday birthday even more special!

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Christmas Picture Book Activities

nativity lunch

When we get to the holidays, our schedules tend to fill up. I know in our homeschool, I’m ready to wind down as we prepare to celebrate. I’m always looking for something super easy, and the solution for us has been books! This Christmas I invite you to simplify your routine and try this out.

Below is a list of books. Each book is absolutely wonderful on it’s own, but sometimes it’s fun to add a little something extra, but simple! With each book, I have described a short activity to go along with it.

Choose one of these, two of these, or do them all. That’s it! No worksheets, no schedule, just read the books with your kiddos. If you want to add in the activity, go for it! We have loved using picture books to study during the Christmas season, and I hope it can do the same for you and your family too!

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Great Joy

BOOK: “Great Joy” by Kate DiCamillo

This sweet story follows a girl with a big heart who wants to share the Christmas spirit with a lonely man she sees sleeping on the street.

ACTIVITY: Angel Ornaments – Any time I look for a craft, I want something unique but also with supplies I know I will have around the house. I most always have craft sticks, so the only kicker in this supply list was the yarn. However, the cuteness-factor of this craft motivated me to purchase the yarn and go for it. This angel is so sweet, and I think my kids will adore seeing the final product.

watercolor christmas tree

Christmas Farm

BOOK: “Christmas Farm” by Mary Lyn Ray

In this story, a woman asks the help of her neighbor to plant Christmas trees on her property. Their time and hard work result in a beautiful Christmas tree farm that they can share with their community.

ACTIVITY: There are so many different ideas out there to craft a Christmas tree. I’ll share a few simple ones here, but the picture above is an example that’s great for little ones! I drew the outline of the tree and had my little ones paint it with green watercolor. Next, I provided them with q-tips and paint to make ornaments. This was so simple and turned out cute! Listed below are a few more Christmas tree ideas:

The Gingerbread Man

BOOK: “The Gingerbread Man” by Karen Scmidt

This classic story about a runaway gingerbread man is entertaining and silly. The pictures are fun and the ending is a bit of a surprise!

ACTIVITY: This one may seem obvious, but it’s a great opportunity to bake gingerbread cookies together. We’ve been using the same recipe for years and it’s absolutely delicious! If you want to make it even simpler, you could play with play dough instead. Use gingerbread cookie cutters and things like beads or buttons to decorate.

nativity lunch

The First Christmas Night

BOOK: “The First Christmas Night” by Keith Christopher

This rhyming book tells the story of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus starting from the arrival to the stable. The pictures are so beautiful and almost look like real people!

ACTIVITY: I found this precious nativity lunch idea on Pinterest, and it turned out adorable. (Get directions and FREE printable here) One thing I loved about it was that the food was pretty good for you! (Minus the marshmallow sheep and candy gifts) This was SO easy to add into our day because we actually had almost all of the items, and we eat lunch every day! No extra time needed.

As a side note, we used our play doh shapes to make the star. I bought these play doh shapes years ago when my oldest was a toddler. They are awesome and get used all the time!

Merry Christmas

Happy Reading! I hope you enjoy these books with your family. If you end up doing one of the activities along with it, I’d love to hear about it! Send me a message or tag me on Instagram @simply.learning.together

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Inexpensive Christmas Cards for $30

christmas card

This year I did some experimenting and was able to order our Christmas cards for just $30. I was motivated to do this when I went to my usual source for ordering them and the total for just 50 cards was going to be around $100 (and that was with a Black Friday 50% off sale!)

I’m sorry, but money is already tight during the holidays, and that was NOT going to fly with me this year. I didn’t want to eliminate the cards because I really do enjoy sending them. So, I came up with an alternative to create some inexpensive Christmas cards and I’m sharing that with you!

It’s possible that this idea is obvious or yesterday’s news, but it’s a first for me, and I felt pretty proud saving $70 this December. If just one person is able to do the same after reading this then I will be happy! Now, keep in mind prices may be different based on where you live. The point is – I hope this saves you money!

Do these look as amazing as a glitter-font-filled cardstock photo cards? Absolutely not. However, I think with a little more practice I may get these looking better and better every year.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Search for Inspiration

The first thing I did was get inspired. I’m not the most creative when it comes to graphic design. So, I shopped around on Christmas card sites for some different ideas of what I would like my card to look like. I paid attention to colors, fonts and font sizes.

Create with Canva

Have you ever used Canva? It has so many neat things, but I’d say my skills are pretty beginner level. I love that you can even create for free with this website! I decided to make a Christmas card that was the size of a 4×6 photo.

There’s a search bar on the site, and that’s where I entered “4×6” and voila! A template was created for me that was just the right size.

Next, I added the picture I wanted along with the text I came up with. I’m a pretty simple gal when it comes to this stuff, so one picture and a “Merry Christmas!” was all I needed. However, you can really go nuts with this site and do all kinds of things!

Now that I know this strategy works, I may try to get more creative next year! Once I finished my design, I downloaded it to my computer as a .png file.

Photo Prints

I used Shutterfly to do this next step. They were having their Black Friday sale at the time which allowed me to get an even better deal. Instead of choosing their Christmas card option, I selected to order prints!

I was able to upload the .png file and ordered 60 of them! Get this – my total with tax and shipping was $22.51. That’s it! I got 10 more prints than the 50 Christmas cards they offered me at the beginning, and It was almost $80 less.

I was even able to use a code and get 2 sets of free return address labels, so the Black Friday sale was the way to go!

Envelopes

The next thing I needed was envelopes, so I went to the handy dandy Amazon for those. There were all kinds of options, but I ended up going with just a simple white 4×6 photo envelope. At the time I ordered these, they were $8.57 with tax.

Did you total that out? Sixty Christmas cards, 2 sets of return address labels, and 70 envelopes for $31.08! That’s a steal compared to the $100 I was about to pay. Yes, please, and thank you!

Quality

Now, the big question was – How were these going to turn out? Well, I’ll be completely honest with you. The quality looks like a photo. These are not fancy card stock with glitter foil borders. You have to be fine with simplicity, but they printed great and the text looked awesome!

I’ll also say I kept it very basic! Now that I know how this works, I may put a little more effort into it in the future, but overall I am happy with it for what I paid.

Am I late to the game on this? Is it an obvious strategy to save money? I don’t know! All I know is I’m glad I tried it out. I don’t remember Christmas cards being so expensive! So, this is a decent trick I’m happy to have up my sleeve.

My hope is that someone else reading this may be able to save some money and try it too! Merry Christmas to you all!

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Book Review

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One of our Christmas read alouds this year was “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” by Barbara Robinson. I chose the book because it was on the Read Aloud Revival holiday booklist and because I had heard great things about it from others.

A friend reached out to me before I read it, and gave me a heads up that there were some inappropriate parts in the story for little ears to hear. I was so thankful for this message, because she was right. There are definitely some parts in the book that may be worth editing or skipping, and I plan to share them with you here.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Pointing Out the Bad

Let me just start by saying that this book was so precious. If you’re wondering if it’s a good book to read for Christmas, my vote is YES! My kids looked forward to it every night, and I even teared up at the end!

Now, with that in mind, you’ll have to make note that I’m about to point out the not-so-great things in the book. It’s the focus of this post – to warn you of some of the things that might be bad for little ears. But please don’t mistake that for this being a bad book. Of course, use your discretion to pick what’s best for your family, but please do not interpret my post as a negative review. We adored this story.

I would read it again in a heartbeat!

Age Group

My girls and I read every night before bed. Their ages are 8, 6, and 3. So, you can see that a variety of ages will enjoy this. I will say that my older two caught on a bit more, but you better believe their youngest sister was giggling along with them at times.

I truly feel this book would be great for even older kids as well. If you have middle school kids, they’d probably get a kick out of this too. It’s one the whole family can enjoy together.

The Herdmans

The book is about a group of siblings called the Herdmans. They’re naughty, and I mean really naughty. They are terrible to other kids, parents, and pretty much all authorities. They are mean, destroy property, smoke cigars, and set a terrible example. The thing is — they make this story! Their behavior and actions is what really drives this book home in the end, so you have to get past the bad to get to the good.

What I love about reading aloud with my kids is that it provides us with a safe environment to talk about these things together. What do we think of the behavior? What would you do in that situation? How should we act towards others? Is this the right thing to do? We had lots of these discussions with this book, and they were very meaningful.

Bullying

I’m not going to cover each chapter, but I will tell you that chapter one is a doozy when it comes to bullying. The author does a great job setting up the characters and pointing to the fact that – the Herman’s are rude to all! There is a character in particular that this chapter focuses on, Imogene Herdman. There is an entire section about her sneaking around to find out everyone’s body weight and then using it against them later.

The only time this got really uncomfortable for me is when the book started using words like “the fat kids” and then had an entire paragraph about what fat camp was. I try to teach my kids not to use the word “fat” and it was thrown around quite casually in this chapter. Once again…I’m not mad about it. I love being able to talk to them about these things in the safety of our home. This is just a heads up for you. The word “fat” comes up multiple times in this chapter.

The first chapter also brings up “cooties”, so that was a new term for some of my kids. Needless to say the author does an amazing job making these kids sound straight up awful!

Language

We just finished this book, and I really can’t remember any curse words. In my opinion, those are easy to edit quickly or skip over, but I don’t recall them even coming up.

I will point out that a couple of the Herdmans shout, “Oh my God!” during their rehearsals. The point of this is the rest of the children are in shock that someone would use God’s name in vain in the church.

I chose to say “Oh my gosh” instead and the whole thing went right over my kids’ heads. I want to say it happens 2-3 times.

The only other part that sticks out in my head is when a preacher says at the end of chapter 6, “Mrs. Wendelken says all they do is talk about sex and underwear.”

I didn’t see that one coming, but I just skipped over sex and said “underwear”, not because it’s a bad word, but because I wasn’t about to have a discussion about sex right before bedtime. We’d be talking for hours! I just made the quick decision to skip it and move on.

The Nativity

I don’t want to give away too much in the story, but I think it’s also important to point out that the Herdmans are not aware of the Christmas story. They are very curious and want to make sense of it all. They throw around jokes and make up crazy scenarios about what might have happened. I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing. Just know that you are going to come across some things that add a sort of silliness to the nativity.

Do you ever use Common Sense Media? I looked this book up to see what it had to say, and it made the point like this, “Parents need to know that this is a unique and entertaining spin on an age-old tale. Some parents may want to exercise discretion: Not everyone will want their children exposed to the antics of the main characters or will appreciate the liberties the story takes with what some people may consider sacred ground.”

…But it’s SOO CUTE!

I really hate saying all this. It makes the book sound terrible, but I promise you it’s absolutely adorable. The end of the book was so meaningful and it brought me to tears. I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Here’s the thing – the book is only 7 chapters and just 90 pages. If you are considering it for your family, but you aren’t sure how you’ll feel, pre-read it. You could probably do it in one sitting! It’s that quick (and entertaining!) Find it in your library so you can do this for free, and decide whether or not you want to share it with your kids.

We loved it! I don’t regret it one bit. I love the discussions we had. I love the giggles we shared, but I can’t spoil the beautiful message that is displayed at the end. Even if you read this on your own and decided to wait on it a few years to share with your kids, I truly feel your time wouldn’t be wasted.

Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, and this author has a fun, unique way of pointing this out to us, even if it makes us slightly uncomfortable for a bit. Jesus came for all, and this story proves just that!

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Logic of English Foundations A Review

logic of english

This is my second child I’ve taught to read, but my approach has been completely different from my first. This year we used Logic of English Foundations A to teach reading, and I’ll be sharing how it worked for us.

This is not a sponsored post. I chose Logic of English on my own and plan to share my honest opinion about it with you.

This post contains affiliate links. If you follow one of my links I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Why Logic of English?

I was actually pretty stubborn about teaching reading. I did not use a reading curriculum with my first daughter, and I was certain I could follow the same path with my second daughter. Alas, I have learned that each of my children is unique and their gifts of learning vary greatly! What works for one does not always work for the other.

The summer before my daughter’s first grade year, I decided to purchase an inexpensive reading workbook to complete casually throughout the summer. As we did it together, the thought came to my mind that it was so nice to have directions to follow each time we worked instead of coming up with my own activity like I was used to.

This was my realization that a reading program would be helpful for the both of us, and I had to let go of my stubbornness. Unfortunately, these programs can get pretty costly!

Years ago, I heard great things about 100 Easy Lessons, purchased it, and didn’t really like it. I wish I would have because it costs a lot less! So, I wanted to choose between the two price-y ones I heard the most about – Logic of English and All About Reading.

Here’s Some of the Reasons I chose Logic of English:

  • Low prep for each lesson
  • Handwriting included (manuscript/cursive)
  • I can easily re-use it with other children (minus the student workbook)
  • Doodling Dragons Picture Book (my daughter would love this)
  • Not grade-level focused, moves at the pace of my child
  • Activities included are simple and follow my style of teaching
  • Tactile Handwriting Cards and activities for multi-sensory learning

Items Included

The Foundations A set comes with a handful of items that I will discuss in this post. To see my unboxing of this set, check out my YouTube video for a detailed look at each item.

Lessons and Assessments

Foundations A includes 40 lessons and 8 Assessments (A-H). Each lesson and assessment comes with a script for the parent to follow. With each lesson there is anywhere between 1-4 workbook pages for the student to complete. Each workbook page is very short and can be a simple as pointing at a picture.

One of the things I love about each lesson is that there are so may activities to pick from. I feel like at first this was a little overwhelming. As I get with every new curriculum, I felt like I had to do everything. After a while, I got used to the set up and was able to pick and choose things based on our own needs and schedule.

The assessments were actually the most fun! Isn’t that interesting? You assess your child using games and hands on activities, and we looked forward to each one. The assessments also made it easy for me to see what she understood and what needed more work.

Handwriting

Every lesson includes handwriting practice. Strokes and lowercase letters are introduced and there is space to practice in the student workbook. My child is not a fan of writing, and the amount of handwriting practice was perfect for her. It’s very minimal. For example, the workbook may say to write the letter a few times on your favorite line. So it’s not rigorous by any means.

The Tactile Cards that go along with the handwriting lesson are so fun. We didn’t use them every time, but my daughter loved them! It’s almost like a sandpaper feeling and it really helps learn the letters using multiple senses.

We chose to use the manuscript version. (You have the option to choose manuscript or cursive) I was happy with this choice, but I will say that the handwriting that is taught is very unique. It’s slanted and curvy, which is excellent in preparation for cursive, but it matches nothing else that we have. This would be my only negative thought about the handwriting (more on this later).

I’ve heard of many parents that skip the handwriting all together, but learning the strokes and using the tactile cards was so helpful to my daughter that I decided to stick with it. They do offer a handwriting book separately, and now that she is more confident in writing, I may add that in as practice.

Spelling

Spelling is introduced in lesson 21 and continues with each lesson after that. The lesson comes with 3-5 words that follow what you’ve been practicing, so it really sets the student up for success. I will say that once spelling was introduced the lessons felt really long. We ended up splitting them up into two sometimes three days.

doodling dragons

Games and Activities

I love the variety of games so much. It matches my teaching style, and I think that’s why we enjoyed it. Every game option they give you uses the cards that comes with the set. So you’re never having to cut a bunch of things or laminate or find a list of supplies.

To give you an example you might practice your phonograms by hiding the cards around the room and having a scavenger hunt. Or you might lay the cards on the table and slap the correct one. They’re all just really fun and easy to do.

And there are so many!! The Teacher’s Manual provides you with a variety of games to pick from for each lesson. When you finish an assessment, there’s a whole page of ideas on how to practice different skills using the games. It’s so helpful!

make your own reader

Readers

The readers are created by the students! This is the cutest thing to me. I believe there are 6 total and each one comes with a set of pictures and then a group of blank pages with the words to read. Your child reads the words and matches the pictures to each page.

There’s cutting and pasting and matching. This makes the reading so fun! Not only is the process of putting it together unique, but the pictures are so silly. We really got a kick out of these!

Doodling Dragons

This picture book has a page for each phonogram. There are silly pictures and rhymes that use all the sounds of the phonograms. It’s very cute, and my daughter loved looking at each page. On YouTube, there are songs that go along with each page as well. These were wonderful, but we usually forgot to listen to them. I believe you can purchase a CD, so if you have a CD player or like listening to things like that in the car, it may be worth the purchase.

Sometimes I think that if we would listen to them in the car, my younger kids would catch on and begin learning them as well.

The Not-So-Great Things

Can you tell we loved this? I could go on and on about how easy it was to use and how much my daughter enjoyed lessons. My complaints are so minimal, but I’ll share in order to give a thorough review.

LONG LESSONS – This was an easy fix, but it also could vary with the child. We simply split the lessons up into a couple days. The book encourages you to do this as well, but if you feel bound to a lesson number and completing one a day, that will get tougher as you work further into the book.

LOTS OF PIECES – When I received the box for the set, I was immediately overwhelmed by all of the cards and pieces that come with it. There’s a lot! So, finding a way to organize it all was key. I went with a plastic container that allowed me to keep the cards in their own box but still altogether. It’s been great!

HANDWRITING – I mentioned this earlier, but the handwriting is unique. It really doesn’t match any other writing in other books we do. So, it’s something you’ll have to decide if you want to do or not. We stuck with it, and I just plan to get their handwriting book at some point to practice.

SO MUCH TO DO – This really isn’t a bad thing, but I will say that there are so many options of things to do, and it would be very difficult to do it all. So, it’s important to look through and pick what’s best. For example, with every letter the child learns, the book provides ways to “celebrate” the letter. We never did this. The ideas were so cute, but ultimately it didn’t fit in the schedule of our family.

COST – A program like this doesn’t come cheap. It’s one of the reasons I hesitated to get it in the first place. It’s also tough because set A is only 40 lessons, and although it took us until Thanksgiving to finish (we started in July), it’s kind of a bummer to already have to spend another $100 to keep going. My hope is that the cost will eventually even out when I am able to use it for my next two kids, as well. All I will have to purchase in the future is the student workbook.

Other Random Things I Love

WHITEBOARD: The miniature whiteboard that comes with the set got used every day. It was so helpful and I love that it had a giant set of handwriting lines and then smaller ones on the opposite side.

MOMMY IS LEARNING: I’ve learned so much with this program. I never knew every sound of every letter. I learned about voiced and unvoiced sounds. We’ve learned things about consonants and vowels that I had no idea about. I love learning alongside my kids!

TEACHER’S MANUAL: The Teacher’s Manual is bound in a hardcover. Almost every spiral book I have ends up coming apart in some way, and this one has no spiral. It makes me happy knowing it will last through the years!

Final Thoughts

My daughter’s attitude about reading has changed so much since we started this. Her and I were both frustrated the year before this, and using Logic of English has given us so much joy. I can specifically remember a lesson where we giggled and had fun, and when I told her she could get up to leave she ran up and hugged me! I just melted – so thankful for the progress we were making and continue to make to this day.

It took me a while to finally bite the bullet and pick a reading program, but once I did I felt so much less pressure when it came to teaching reading. It gave me confidence each day knowing a plan was in place, and it built up my daughter’s confidence each step of the way.