Age 3-4 - Age 6-8 - Books - Reading

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Make a Fort - Fort making kits

October 28th 2011 04:16

Forts are FUN.

Forts can also be an inexpensive gift that encourages imaginative play. You do not even have to wait for a special occasion to present this amazing indoor gift, but it does make a wonderful present to bring along to one of the seemingly hundreds of birthday parties your children are invited to over the years.

Pack one for your own children to take along on overnight trips to grandparents, both your child and parents will thank you. If you have the room and temperament, a more permanent solution is described below.

FORT MAKING KITS
What is it?
What do you need?

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Craft, Reading, Toys

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A is for Always

April 2nd 2011 12:52

For 26 days in April (minus Sundays) I will be posting a blog for each letter of the alphabet.
"Sylvie's word of the day"
I am all for challenges, so when this was dangled in front of me in my writers group, I grabbed it.

Hundreds of people signed up, literally 1037 people. Go ahead, Sign up here, if you dare.

This mini adventure is fairly mundane, but with 1000 bloggers jumping in, stalking each other, chatting away everyday, something good is bound to happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Always is my word of the day, in honor of ALWAYS learning. Life is too ....oh wait, I'll just quote Henry Miller, he said it best.....

"develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music, the world is simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself." ~Henry Miller

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Cooking, Craft, DVDs, Maths, Reading, Social Studies, Toys, Writing

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Play With Me

January 25th 2010 18:34

Following on from our animal theme we have been reading the charming book, Play With Me written by Marie Hall Ets. It features a little girl who ventures outside to play with the wild animals only to discover that at first they are too frightened to go near her. The text and pictures are charming in this book and is one of my daughter's favourites.

Homeschool Share provided us with some book related suggestions, the favourite one of my daughter being the Guess Who Animal game.

We stumbled upon a fun birdcage craft and my partner and daughter even built a birdhouse and feeder from a $5 craft pack we discovered in a supermarket.

For the younger children we found a dot painting frog as well as an alphabet dot to dot.

For those that like fingerpainting here were a couple of animal fingerpainting ideas which gave us some inspiration.

For turtle lovers, here is a fun turtle craft as well as an easy turtle to colour.

And let's not forget the paper chain snake.

A book like this provides lots of opportunities for animal spotting, although as it is winter at the moment, our animal spotting is diminished slighly with only some squirrels and a few birds - however better than nothing.

Springtime is a great time of year to visit this story however any time of the year is great to read inspirational stories to your children.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Craft, Reading, Social Studies

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Halloween Lesson Plans

October 1st 2009 13:50

October already and that means only one thing for children (particularly in North America) - Halloween. This is a fun time for children to let their imagination run wild and it is great to incorporate monsters, goblins, ghouls and witches into the curriculum to inspire their creativity and imagination.

For history buffs it is interesting to go over the facts behind the tradition and if you are unfamiliar with the history then drop over to TIme For Kids to give you the lowdown.

It is certainly not Halloween without a pumpkin and Youth Online gives an amazing 101 Things To Do With A Pumpkin. DLTK also provides an easy pumpkin template to use with the younger students as well as Halloween printables and colouring pages.

Math Drills gets into the action with their Halloween themed spider maths page and ABC Teach have a whole page dedicated to Halloween fun.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Craft, Reading

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Don't Discount Second Hand Stores

September 18th 2009 17:35

Investigating a new area to live, I started checking out all the stores - second hand stores included and noticed what bargains they had to offer particularly in the way of kids educational computer games and books. We managed to make some great savings and many of the books and cds were priced at $2 or less!

The Little Bear Preschool Thinking Adventure normally sells for between $10 and $15 and we picked it up for $1. A definite bargain!

We found a lot of Scholastic and Disney titles and there were purchases that kept both my daughter and I very happy.

Stores like Value Village (Canada) also have a 50% off day so it is worth popping in just to see what they may have in stock. Cheap is good but cheaper is better!

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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Speakaboos

June 2nd 2009 02:38

The Speakaboo website served a great purpose this week as it gave us an online version of The Ugly Duckling to read and view as well as a follow on activity, but the site itself holds an interesting premise.

Coming soon, as the site announces, is a record your own story section which will allow kids and parents to record their own voices reading (or singing!) their favorite story, song, or nursery rhyme. Anything that aids in the improvement and creation of kids wanting to read or listen to stories is a great idea.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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Ugly Duckling Week

May 31st 2009 07:02

This may sound like some poor joke but it is the book to which my daughter has chosen to base all of her crafts and activities this week. Again being a popular story like The Three Liltte Pigs, there is no shortage for either crafts or activities we can do together.

We have various Ugly Duckling and Swan pictures to cut out and glue together, although my favourite is this 3D duck. We are unable to source the plastic eggs although are going to amend it slightly by using small paper cups which should do the trick just nicely

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading

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Send In The Clowns

May 24th 2009 02:59

Admittedly I am not a fan of clowns, preferring to see them at children's parties rather than adorned all over my wall. So the inclusion of Clown Week into our schedule took me a little by surprise to say the least.

Loonette and Molly from the Canadian Series, The Big Comfy Couch, are a particular favourite in our house so at least I had a starting point on which to base our activities. And in particular I love the concept of a 10-second tidy which we are going to incorporate with a clown based cleaning chart
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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Craft, DVDs, Maths, Reading

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BBC Stories

May 14th 2009 00:50

CBeebies, the children's BBC website, has a great range of stories to watch and read along with and will easily inspire your children.

Currently my daughter's favourite, she enjoys listening to the stories and selecting her own depending on her mood. The stories are excerpts from the children's programs featured on the BBC channel such as The Tweenies, The Story Makers and Charlie and Lola

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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The Three Little Pigs

May 12th 2009 04:39

From one classic fairytale to another, this week's activities surround the ever popular children's tale, The Three Little Pigs.

Being such a popular story, it seems that there is no shortage for inspiration on the web covering all kinds of activities, colouring pages and ideas to complement the story

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading

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Jack And The Beanstalk

May 3rd 2009 10:22

My daughter was very excited that today marked the first day of Giant Week aka Jack And The Beanstalk Week. Having changed her mind at the last minute from her original choice of The Ugly Duckling, she had me do some last minute website searching in order to come up with some creative ideas.

Thankfully the BBC had an online adapted story about Jack and The Beanstalk which she enjoyed watching which led us into a discussion about Real or Make Believe. Tina's fun little online game came to our aid just to refamiliarise her with our discussion

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading

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The Golden Egg Book

April 24th 2009 09:21

Whilst we may be a little late for Easter, next week's topic is "bunny week" as my daughter now constantly refers. We are basing our activities on or around The Golden Egg Book originally published in 1947, written by Margaret Wise Brown.

The story tells of a little bunny who stumbles upon an egg. The bunny becomes curious as he can hear something moving inside the egg. His imagination runs wild and the impatient bunny tries to shake, push, and even jump on the egg in his attempts to break it. But all his efforts go in vain as the stubborn egg refuses to budge. The mystery unravels when the egg begins to hatch and much to the bunny's surprise, a little duck comes out. The bunny and the duck then become friends

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading

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Free Online Children's Books

April 13th 2009 02:26

As an expat abroad, I am always searching for new stories to share with my daughter.

The Children's Library is a non-profit organisation offering a wide variety of free paper books to be read online including stories such as Axle The Freeway Cat, Blinky Bill, Cinderella and Mother Goose

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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Five In A Row

April 1st 2009 01:49

Five In A Row is a unique program which is ideal for home schooling or extra learning and combines children's literature with creative lesson plans involving social studies, language, art, applied maths and science.

The main program is designed for young children from 4-8 although the Before Five In A Row, Beyond Five In A Row and Above and Beyond Five In A Row caters from 2 up until the ages of 12 onwards

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Reading

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