Experience God

We finished up the last 2 complete lessons from the Mother Goose Time add on, Experience God.  The girls really enjoyed the lessons.  I don't think Elli really understood anything we were talking about, but Addie loved listening to the Bible stories and verses.  I even overheard her telling one of her friends about God's house when they were playing.

We did a lot of activities related to passover and heaven.  The girls favorites were making footprint pictures, fruit of the spirit crowns, and paper plate harps. 

We'll be using the Experience God add on again next month and will be learning about God the creator.

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Nature Detectives, Learning with Themes

I love that Mother Goose Time uses thematic learning.  I can't wait to start next months nature detectives theme.

Every month has a new theme and each day has a different topic related to the theme.  When our box arrives each month the girls are so excited to get it open and see what we will be learning about.  Addie loves to find out what our new theme will be.

I love that all month long we will be learning about one theme, it's a great way to increase knowledge on a subject and makes it easy to add on to the individual topics that interest the girls the most.  All month long we will be making crafts, cooking, reading books, completing science experiments, playing games and signing songs that all relate to nature.  Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice so we can take a lot of the lessons outside.  Each day comes with a topic poster and is in its own bag so it is super easy to pack up and go.  I put the topic poster on our circle time display and when we start our day we talk about what we will be learning about.  All the lessons for the day revolve around the daily topic, while also relating back to the monthly theme.  Using thematic learning is a great way to reinforce what has already been learned and you can tie something learned on one day into topics on the following days. 

Day 2 bag

fun activities all month

book of the month

There are also add ons avaialbe which also are theme based.  I use the Little Goose book with Elli and Addie gets the more math and reading workbooks.  These resources are a great way to tailor the lessons to your childs ability.

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God Cares About My Home

One of the add ons available through Mother Goose Time is their Experience God program. This is our first month trying it.  The lesson plan book is broken up into 4 lessons with 5 activities in each.

Teacher Pack

Child Pack

Week 1

We started by reading the back of the story cards and completing the accompanying actions.  The girls made heaven bracelets, representing the gold roads and pearly gates.

We also talked about the Book of Life and Addie made her own, writing down the names of people who love Jesus.

The girls also built block roads, all leading to God.

Then they colored the provided picture and we cut out the story telling cards to retell what happened.

Week 2 we talked about God's house.

We talked about how God's house is big enough for everyone and that Jesus died on a cross to create a way to heaven.  The girls made a drawing of heaven and Earth separated by a cross. Then they used a magnet to move a paperclip representing themselves, from Earth to heaven. 

In heaven all things are clean and pure.  We talked about words that can be hurtful and words that are pure.  The girls found the hurtful words that were around the house and crumpled them up and threw them away.

The girls also made a cute house craft.  God's house is filled with love, so the girls decorated the inside of a house with things they love.

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Father's Day

One of the things I love about Mother Goose Time is that they provide bonus days for the holidays.  Since Father's Day is tomorrow I pulled out the extra bag and used it with the girls.

I painted the girls feet and they made foot prints to go along with a Father's Day poem.

They also made cards and came up with words that started with D like Dad.

The girls favorite activity of the day was putting shaving cream on kick balls and pretending to shave them.  They had so much fun with this that they did it multiple times.

Doors and Windows

So far this month with Mother Goose Time we've been learning about different homes.  With week 2 we've started leaning about different rooms.  We started with doors and windows.  The girls used playing cards to try and build houses.  Addie made a few, but Elli just kept knocking them down before she could add to them.

 Then they made their own paper-bag houses.  This was such a cute idea, and they turned out so well.

working on a door

 The girls used the plastic key manipulatives to practice counting to 20.  We put them in piles of 5 and worked on skip counting.  We also worked on sorting them by color.  I also brought out the shape manipulatives and shape mats from last week to practice counting.   After they were done with that we used the keys to make imprints in kinetic sand. 

sorting by color

using the foam shapes to count

making key imprints

 We played guess which door, which the girls loved.  There were 12 doors that each had a different animal on the other side.  I put the doors on the floor and then said different characteristics until the girls could figure out which door needed to be opened.  They used the key manipulatives to pretend to unlock and open the doors, and then acted out the animal on the other side.

trying to figure out which door needs opened

pretending to be a kangaroo

We had a lesson fail today, which doesn't ever happen with Mother Goose Time.  The girls were supposed to use their breathe to fog up the windows and practice writing letters on them. Unfortunately it was so hot out that we couldn't get them to fog up. 

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Review and Giveaway: Little Passports versus Top Secret Adventures

A few months ago I wrote a blog post in exchange for a free month from Little Passports.  I selected the world edition and had high hopes that it would be a good way for Addie to learn more about the world.  We received the explorer kit and the country pack for Brazil.  The explorer kit comes with a world map, suitcase, passport, postcard, letter, and a few stickers.  Addie loved it.

explorer kit

However the country pack was lacking in material.  Each month you get 3 stickers, a post card, a letter, a small souvenir (in this case a rock) and a piece of paper (it had a recipe, word search, and word scrambler).  The price ranges from $11.95 to $13.95 a month and to me it wasn't worth the price at all.  You basically get some bits of paper you could make yourself or find online, an item worth next to nothing and also a code for online "games."  The games were trivia questions with multiple choice answers and a map you clicked on and read facts about.  The only actual game was kicking a soccer ball into a goal, and there are free soccer games online that work much better.  Addie loved getting the package in the mail but the contents didn't hold her interest at all.  And she usually gets overly excited about everything.  I was an affiliate for Little Passports, meaning I receive a small commission if anyone buys their product after using my link, but after seeing what you get I deleted my account with them.  I've read so many great reviews about Little Passports, but I'm assuming most of them are from other affiliate members trying to make money.  It's a great concept, just lacking in value.

monthly country kit

We also received Top Secret Adventure by Highlights to try out.  You can get your first month for free, with just paying shipping costs, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out.  This also comes with a world map, passport stamps and passport.  You also get a spy ring, which is like a carabiner that you add country key-chains to.  Addie loves this and wears it on her belt loop when we're at home.  I decided to try Brazil since that's the country Little Passports starts with.  Every month you get a case file portfolio with a 32 page puzzle book, villain cards, country guide book, key chain, and assignment letter. 

contents of the portfolio

Addie LOVES this kit.  We've already spent numerous days working through the puzzles trying to complete the top secret mission.  I like that the puzzles have you reference the guide book to find answers.  Addie has already learned quite a bit about Brazil and we're not even halfway done.  I also like that this is something that can take multiple weeks to work through as opposed to the 15 minutes it took to complete the Little Passport activities.  After your initial free month, you can get a new mission every month for $17.40.  Top Secret Adventures is a great way to get kids interested in and learning geography.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY

If you would like to get your own Top Secret Adventures Brazil kit enter below.  This is only for the Brazil kit with portfolio, puzzle book, guide book, key chain, and villain cards.  The starter pack which has the map, passport, spy ring and stickers is not included.  This giveaway will be open from 6/13/15-6/20/15.  Must be 18 years or older to enter to win, and a resident of the continental USA. Void where prohibited by law.

Entry-Form

Houseboats and Castles

We just finished up our first week of alphabet house with Mother Goose Time, and so far the girls are loving it.  Each day we start off with circle time.  An added feature this month is an alphabet house that the girls add a letter to every day.

Addie never realized that some people live on boats.  She thought either living on a boat or taking a vacation on one would be fun.  The weather was beautiful so I grabbed the bag for day 4 and we took it out to the boat.  I love that each day is separated into its own bag so you can just grab and go. We used shape manipulatives to make houses, put different objects in water to see what sinks and floats, and also made a boat out of foil and tried to sink it with coins.

The girls loved castle day.  They made crowns that they wound up wearing multiple days in a row.  Anytime a craft has glitter or gems the girls will love it. 

Dragons are one of Addie's favorite things.  Her room is decorated with dragons, last year she wanted a dragon birthday cake, and she has a lot of dragon books and stuffed dragons.  So when I said we were making a dragon puppet that we would be using the rest of the month she was thrilled.  We talked about Poland and learned about the Wawel Castle, which has a tunnel that many believe leads to a dragon's den.  I made a tunnel for the dragon and after the girls were done playing in it we built a cave and watched How to Train Your Dragon.

We wrapped up the day reading a book about castles, building castles out of blocks, and completing workbooks.

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