Teaching Toddlers Generosity

While we know the general things to teach our preschoolers like A,B,C's and 1,2,3's, Mother Goose Time helps you teach your children lessons beyond the typical.

New to us this year are the Forest Friends. Each month these little forest animals help teach lessons like Generosity to your preschooler. This unique method of teaching really helps your little ones grasp and get involved in learning how to be a good friend and person.

Firstly, each month you are given a new book with a new topic. This month's was about generosity and was titled "Generous Friends".

The book is beautifully illustrated and can be read easily for the children to follow along.

Along with the book, you are given play-along characters. These characters appear each month and become friends to your little ones. I use these characters to act out the story as we are reading. We read each book twice. One the second time reading it, the girls act out the characters as I read.

They are also given popsicle sticks and a character to cut out and place on the sticks. They cut out their characters and tape them on themselves. This month's character featured was a singing bird. Each time the bird sang in the story, they would hold up the bird and sing a happy song. When the bird was sad, they would act sad. It is a great way to get the children involved in the emotions of the story and to understand how the character is feeling.

After the story has been read, acted out and discussed they are given Draw and Dictate sheets. This month's sheet asks them to draw a time where someone was generous with them and how it made them feel.

Bella (who turns 5 tomorrow) chose to think back to a time where her friend shared a toy with her. Trinity (who is now 3) chose to draw about an event that happened this morning. She drew her sister.

I always love these new opportunities I am given to teach the girls something that I wouldn't normally teach. I enjoyed watching them discuss when they were giving, and how it made them feel. We also talked about how we can be generous to friends, family and strangers. It brings up new topics each month and really helps us grow and talk as a family. I am excited to see what will be December's theme!

After months of being a paying customer, I was asked to become an official MGT Blogger. I was proudly given this month's box for free in return for my honest experiences and opinions. 

Fitting One Month's Homeschooling Supplies into One Binder!

Homeschooling can be difficult. Homeschooling with Preschoolers  can mean A LOT of products, supplies, curriculum and mess. Luckily with Mother Goose Time I have learned how to condense ONE MONTH of homeschooling curriculum and supplies into one binder! This helps with my small teaching space and dislike of clutter and mess.

All you need is one binder (I use this kind) and a few sheet protectors like these.

From there I put supplies I use all month (or all year) long into the left front pocket.

In here I put supplies like the color of the month, book of the month, music CD, Forest Friends book, and puzzle.

Next I use sheet protectors to hold loose items. I use one at the front to hold things like the letter cards, My Little Journal, Name Tags, Cube Cards and much more.

From there I use the sheet protector to hold each week's Teacher Guide booklet. I will put the first week's Teacher guide and then put the week's lessons bag-by-bag behind it.

The bags are easy to punch with the rings and easily hold inside the folder for the whole month. When it is time to use a bag, I simply take it out of the folder.

I follow this pattern until I have all four weeks into the folder.

It is seriously that easy! I fit the whole box of curriculum and supplies into my binder in preparation for the new month.

I stash my folder away into my office area and pull it out with my Circle Time Board when it is time to teach!

If you have questions about this method, or about homeschooling your preschooler, comment down below!

After months of being a paying customer, I was given this month's box for free in exchange for my personal opinions and experiences. 

Unboxing Mother Goose Time's November 2018 Box

It's that time of the month! If you are thinking about starting a homeschooling curriculum with your little ones, now is the time to order for November! I received my November box from Mother Goose Time and opened it live with my little helper, Bella, and you! Check out my video down below where I show you everything that comes inside the November box.

After months of being a paying customer, I was given this month's box for free in return for my honest feedback and experiences!

Creating an Art Experience with Your Toddler

Art is fun. Figuring out new ways to create art is even better. Creating art in new ways with your 4 year old is the best.

Certain projects from Mother Goose Time (our monthly preschool kit) stand out more than others for various reasons. This particular project was one of my favorites because of the time Bella and I got to spend together. Sometimes when my other daughter takes a nap, I use that time to do something special with my older daughter. This is time we can really sit one-on-one and focus on being together. I saved this project specifically to do alone with Bella because I knew should would really enjoy taking her time.

For this fun project, we learned about Cherry Trees and were asked to create a Cherry Tree of our own with some unique items! This project comes from our October Box, "Orchard Harvest".

As usual, Mother Goose Time included the items for the project (even a bag of popcorn)!

We read and learned about the symbolism of Cherry Blossoms and the Japanese tradition of hanami. These are things I didn't even know, and never thought of teaching my toddler (another reason why I truly love this curriculum). 

We chose to do this project outside because it was a beautiful day and it's Bella's favorite place to be. She excitedly gathered sticks from around the yard to use as branches for our trees.

Next, we popped our popcorn! It's one of our favorite snacks so we were both pretty excited for this part.

When our popcorn was done we headed outside to create our trees. We used paint and glue from home to complete the project.

Bella really loves art and painting, so she slowly concentrated on painting her grass first. She took her time and used awesome control and focus to create the picture she envisioned. The inspiration photos from Mother Goose Time are awesome because they help inspire the kids to create something similar, but always unique.

Today was special because since Trinity was asleep, I was able to paint and do the project with Bella. It was awesome to see how we chose to create our pictures differently. I love seeing the way Bella's mind thinks differently from mine. She is far more creative!

Next, Bella began to glue on her "branches" and even painted on some additional branches of her own.

Lastly, we added on our "cherry blossoms" and even ate some along the way. Okay, we ate a lot of them!

I loved seeing our completed projects and spending some time together. Bella had fun and was really proud of her tree. If this is something you would like to do with your toddler, please check out Mother Goose Time on their website here to find out all the information on their amazing monthly preschool kits!

After months of being a paying customer, I was given this month's box for free in return for my honest experiences and feedback!

Teaching Toddlers American Sign Language

Sometimes when teaching young children we unknowingly hold them back from their full potential. Luckily with Mother Goose Time I am constantly reminded of important and significant lessons my children can learn every day.

One lesson that really stood out, and we will continue to work on for many weeks to come, was communicating with body language. From this lesson we worked specifically on American Sign Language.

As someone who has worked in food and retail, there are many times where I wished I knew American Sign Language more fluently. I never realized this is something I could teach my daughters easily from a young age and make it very natural for them to grasp onto like a second language.

This week we really focused on sign language and how we can communicate with anyone with these simple hand gestures. The girls found it interesting and fun and the learning kept them engaged with me and each other.

First we focused on signing the alphabet while singing the alphabet song. Mother Goose Time included this awesome ASL Poster that we can hang on our Circle Time Poster. I plan on keeping it there the rest of the year and focusing on the Sign Language with each new letter we learn throughout the year.

The girls took on really easily to the hand movements and recognizing letters as they were motioned. We learned while singing and signing together.

Next we learned our names in Sign Language which Bella really enjoyed.

From there we used a unique tool from Mother Goose Time which makes learning fun and unique. Our new Cube Cards came with different signs on each side. We rolled the cube and learned new signs with each roll and acted them out together.

As we learned a new sign, we would act them out. We did each motion multiple times and then used them throughout the lesson. For example I would sign Bella "Sit Down" and they would all do it with me.

From there I collected a couple of books from our local library. We were able to take home some books that we could practice and read together. The girls liked practicing each letter and motion together.

These are lessons that I am grateful to be able to teach my girls while having fun and learning as an adult myself. If you have questions about Mother Goose Time, or the way we do our curriculum each month, simply comment on the blog or email me. I am happy to help you learn to teach your children new things and to grow together!

After months of being a paying customer, I was given this month's box for free in return for my real experiences and opinions.