Sunday, January 29, 2017

Christian Homeschooling Curriculum from Mother Goose Time - January

Some months we do school every weekday and our Christian curriculum, Experience God, every Sunday. Some months we get sick, travel to Hawaii, then go to Disneyland and do all of our Experience God projects in one Sunday. Potato - Potato.

This month's Experience God pack with Mother Goose Time was super awesome! For an extra $5 a month, I absolutely love this craft pack for the kids. Each month's kit comes with 4 projects which we choose to do each Sunday. This month's theme was "God Asks Me to Be Patient". This month we focused on "Joseph and the Colorful Coat".

Here is a breakdown of the 4 different lessons:

 
Each month you also receive a poster with the month's Bible Verse. I save these for Bella to memorize and I hang them in our classroom. This month's is Psalm 27:14.
 

 
Each month you also receive story cards. These are really awesome and crucial in helping the kids understand the lesson. They feature brightly colored illustrations, and easily written stories on the back that keep the children interested.
 


 
Lesson 1: Wait for What you Want (Craft- Colorful Coat)
 




Bella created and colored her Coat of Many Colors. While she loved wearing it, she also understood the story because like Joseph's brothers, her sister did not have a coat and became jealous.



Day 2: Be Patient in Your Pain (Craft- Joseph Story Puppets) 




Bella and Trinity enjoyed coloring the story pieces together. Bella has improved tremendously in her coloring and staying focused on coloring in certain areas and picking different colors! After they were colored and cut, I read the story as Bella reenacted with her story pieces.


 
Lesson 3: Trust God's Timing (Craft - Egyptian Crown)
 




Bella helped me tape together her Egyptian Crown and definitely enjoyed wearing it!


Lesson 4: Be Patient with Others (Craft - Patient Love Chain)




Bella and I talked about times where she is very patient. I was amazed at all of the times she came up with. We listed how she has good patience with her sister Trinity, when we are driving, when we went on vacation, and when Mommy & Daddy work!
 




Although the crafts are super fun and creative, the lesson behind these crafts is priceless. I wouldn't know how to teach these topics or Bible stories on my own. I love how Mother Goose Time creates these child friendly lessons that keep Bella focused and interested. I also love how we get to discuss new ideas and learn together. I absolutely love this add on!
 
 
 
 

While I do pay for this add on myself, I receive my monthly Mother Goose Time kit for free in exchange for my honest feedback!
 
 



 

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Unboxing of Mother Goose Time's February Box!

Here is the live unboxing of my February Mother Goose Time box! Mother Goose Time is a monthly preschool curriculum kit for parents, guardians, preschools or daycare providers! It comes with everything you need for 20 days of activities and so much more. I have used this program with my now 3 year old daughter since September. This is my favorite theme so far. Check it out!
 
PART 1
 
PART 2



 
After months of being a paid customer, I received this month's box for free in return for my honest feedback!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Easy Toddler Approved Smoothies!

My 3 year old daughter, who used to be the easiest eater in the world, has recently decided to hate every food she used to love! We're talking the good stuff like Yogurt and Cheese. Since she already doesn't like Milk (of course) I was desperate to get some calcium into her body! These smoothies are SO easy and cleanup is just as simple! From start to finish it takes us under 5 minutes.

Do you have a Baby Bullet hidden in the depths of your cabinet? I did! Neither of my daughter's enjoyed baby food so I've literally touched the thing twice since I've owned it. Behold! They make amazing toddler sized shakes!




With two attachments you can go with a traditional blender top, or one that instantly becomes a cup with handles!

I decided to go with my daughter's favorite fruits, but really this is totally customizable! When you use fresh fruit it makes a really smooth shake texture while frozen fruit makes a nice cold smoothie.

Use:

1/2 Banana

1/4 cup Strawberries

1/4 cup Blackberries

1/4 cup Blueberries

1/4 cup Milk

1/4 cup Yogurt (we went with Vanilla Greek Yogurt this time  but a squeezable Yogurt pouch is the perfect amount and delicious as well)




This same recipe works great for the frozen fruit as well. Yes, this Baby Bullet blends the frozen fruit!



I let my daughter help me add the ingredients which she of course enjoys.




We blended the frozen mixture for about a minute. It came out the perfect texture and was definitely delicious!


Of course a fancy Frozen cup and disposable straw make the smoothie much more consumable by toddler standards so that's how we spice it up a bit 😉



**  I am fully aware and sorry these are not professionally posed or photographed smoothies. They are far more delicious than depicted, I promise! I am also aware that I should have purchased organic fruits and photographed a perfect banana but organic frozen fruit wasn't on sale for $2 (I could not pass that up)!  **

Sunday, January 15, 2017

A Day with Mother Goose Time

Let me just start this post by saying the Mother Goose Time program is completely customizable and able to be used a numerous amount of ways. I am a working mom who also homeschool teaches my 3 year old daughter. I also have a 1 year old daughter that I usually customize school time around. For this reason we do school for 1-2 hours a day. Some days more, some days less. This is just how we do it and enjoy it in our family and you can do it in any way with yours!

Each Morning we start with Circle Time. During Circle Time I bring out my Display Board (which I describe here). When I do this I also put in our Circle Time CD. This has a few songs Bella knows and we use to get in the mood for class! 

 
Each month you also receive a CD that goes with that month's theme. It also comes with custom lyrics each month that goes with the theme! I put this in after Circle Time and play it as background music during crafts and projects.


After our songs we settle down and discuss the days Date and go outside to check the weather. 


 



When this is done we discuss what we will be learning that day! I always turn to my Lesson Planner for guidance on the projects and lessons we will be doing. Here's what a typical day looks like:



 

From this point on, each day is different. We learn a variety of topics and do a variety of projects! On this day we learned about "On the Back" and baby animals that travel on their parent's back. Each month you also receive new numbers, shapes, letters and colors. Today I chose to focus on our shape, the hexagon, and one of our numbers, number 5. Each day I choose what we will focus on. Most days I don't do everything in the planner and only focus on topics that I can fit in during our school time slot.


Each month's box comes with new manipulatives for the kids to play with. This month came with these awesome Pattern Blocks and counting cards. Bella spent time using other shapes to create the hexagon and count out five hexagons total. It was a creative and hands on way for her to learn this new shape.
 





She also enjoyed just playing also!

 
After learning our new shape and number we played a memory game with cards of animals that travel on their parent's backs!




After our game Bella became a mom herself and carried her baby monkey as she enjoyed her banana!



Since she was a monkey herself, we decided to read our story for the day about a monkey and a turtle. She moved the characters herself while I read the story. She learned about how animals move, working together and how roots grow trees!




She made me read it again... and again... and again! She loved it!

After this story it was the perfect time to create her own turtle!




 
While her turtle dried we winded down by reading this month's book which also came in our box. These books are always vibrant, entertaining and teach the kids really well. Trinity, my one year old, also enjoys these books!


 
 
Everything besides the paint and monkey was included for ONE DAY of our monthly kit! Mother Goose Time has done all the hard work and made teaching your toddler so easy and fun. I would never think of these topics on my own. I love it and, most of all, so does Bella!

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