By: Kids Activity Calendar

Start your children off early with their love of reading. Read to them whenever you get a chance so they can learn about books and how special they are. Once they begin to read, they will return the favor by reading to you. Here are my picks for the five best ever children’s books for toddlers.

1. Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell- When Emily Elizabeth gets her very own puppy, neither she nor her family have any idea of how he will change their lives. She names him Clifford. Clifford is a special dog as Emily Elizabeth soon finds out. Clifford grows up and up and up until he’s too big for their apartment. That’s when Emily and her family move to Birdwell Island so Clifford can have some room to play. Through Clifford’s adventures, children learn the values of sharing, apologizing, making friends, and helping out.

2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle- All of Eric Carle’s stories feature loveable creatures from nature in bold colors and shapes. As soon as you see a cover, you know that it is one of his books. The first one that I ever read was about the caterpillar. It seemed that caterpillar was never satisfied and always hungry. Why was he so hungry? Then one day, he disappeared inside something called a cocoon. What happened to caterpillar next will surprise and amaze your toddler. Carle’s books teach practical lessons about nature and how animals function in it. Children will learn about the animals and their native habitats.

3. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein- This book is one that your toddler will ask you to read over and over again. The Giving Tree is a touching book about life and love as told through a young child’s relationship with a tree. Sometimes, though we forget what our parents and friends have done for us. It hurts them when we turn out backs on them, but they always welcome us back with open arms. Parents will like this story because it mirrors a parent’s bittersweet love and sacrifice for a child.

4. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne- Who hasn’t heard of Winnie the Pooh? Pooh belongs to Christopher Robin, a young boy who joins him on many adventures. Winnie the Pooh lives in the Hundred Acre Wood in a tree house surrounded by his friendly neighbors. Your toddler will meet Tigger, the orange and black tiger that bounces around on his tail. They’ll also meet Kanga and Roo, the mother and son duo who live near Pooh. There is Rabbit who tries to keep order in the community and seems to be the only responsible party besides Kanga. Pooh’s favorite fearful friend is Piglet, who runs to Pooh when he’s in trouble. I don’t exactly know what Eeyore is, but the pinned up tail suggests that he is a blue donkey of sorts. He may seem sad, but he comes through for his friends when they need him most. Owl is the wisest of the group, always giving advice to the others on practical matters.

5. Corduroy by Don Freeman- Children love animals especially cute, cuddly teddy bears. Corduroy is a stuffed bear that sits on a shelf in the department store day in and day out waiting for someone to buy him. When a young girl’s mother points out that he has lost a button, Corduroy goes in search of it. As he explores his surroundings, he notices all of the wonderful things that are kept in the store. Does Corduroy ever find his button? Read the book and find out. Corduroy will become one of your toddler’s favorite stories.

When they are not old enough to read, you must do the honors. Any of these books will offer adventurous and heartwarming stories your child will love. If you don’t own any of them, get a copy today.

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Are you ready to challenge your preschooler’s mind even more? Take a look at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com for Alphabet Fun for your preschooler. The alphabet audios, coloring sheets and other activities are a great way to prepare your little one for kindergarten. To get your free sample lesson, stop by www.kidsactivitycalendar.com/letter-a-sample.htm today.

Article Source: http://www.thewahmshack.com/articledirectory

About The Author: Are you ready to challenge your preschooler’s mind even more? Take a look at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com for Alphabet Fun for your preschooler. The alphabet audios, coloring sheets and other activities are a great way to prepare your little one for kindergarten. To get your free sample lesson, stop by www.kidsactivitycalendar.com/letter-a-sample.htm today.

By: Kids Activity Calendar

Just because babies can’t read doesn’t mean that books are no good to them. Babies need stimulation and to hear the sound of your voice. Reading picture books and soft touch books will introduce them to new ideas and familiarize them with their senses. Here are the best ever children’s books for babies.

1. Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt- This is my all time favorite book for babies. In Pat the Bunny, babies get to use their sense of touch to learn about the bunny rabbit in the book. They can feel various surfaces and you can even rub the pages against their face or arms so they can see how soft and tickly the book is. As your child grows, they will be intrigued by the pictures that they can touch. This should be the first book for all children.

2. Are You My Mother? By P.D. Eastman- No matter their species babies need the loving touch of a mother. They will search out their mother by her voice or facial recognition until they find the one they belong to. The baby bird in this book had to do just that. When he hatched, his mother was off gathering food. He had no idea that he was even a baby bird. He walked to the edge and fell out of his nest to the ground. In order to find out where he belonged he asked everything he saw if it was his mother. This book is offered by Amazon.com as a cloth book. Cloth books are perfect for a baby. They can spit up on them and all you need to do is throw it in the washer and dryer and it is ready to read again.

3. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss- I adore all of Dr. Seuss’ books with his nonsense rhymes. Your baby will meet Sam I Am. Sam is trying to get a fellow traveler to try green eggs and ham. The more the fellow protests, the more Sam I Am insists that he must try his product. Just when the traveler thinks he’s lost him, Sam pops up again. He follows the guy everywhere, not taking no for an answer. Your baby will see Sam and the traveler on a train, in the dark, in a house, and with a mouse. As your child grows, the tongue twisters will bring hours of laughter and fun. By the end of the journey, does Sam I Am convince the traveler to try the green eggs and ham? You’ll have to read the book with your child to find out.

4. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb! By Al Perkins- In this fun rhyming book, as the monkeys demonstrate each hand, finger, and thumb show your baby his/her hands, fingers, and thumbs. It’s never too early to start familiarizing them with who they are. The monkeys also discover what they can do with their hands. They can wear sparkly rings on their fingers. They can clap and make music on the drums with their hands. Show your baby how to clap their hands together and pat with them.

5. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. - This book is full of bright colors and letters. The book introduces each letter of the alphabet as it makes its way on stage and up into the coconut tree. Say the letters of the alphabet slowly and point to them on the page. Your child is not old enough now to say them, but in time they will be and they will recognize the letters that you have been showing to them.

Babies need to start early with reading. If you read to them when they are young, they will want you to continue reading to them as they get older. Any of the above favorites will get the ball rolling.

Article Source: http://www.thewahmshack.com/articledirectory

About The Author: Are you ready to challenge your preschooler’s mind even more? Take a look at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com for Alphabet Fun for your preschooler. The alphabet audios, coloring sheets and other activities are a great way to prepare your little one for kindergarten. Find out more at www.kidsactivitycalendar.com

Hey gals!

Just wanted to let you know that we have a nice testimonial/review about the Your Baby Can Read program over here. I knew that some of you would enjoy seeing how this program worked for another mom.

I have been receiving newsletters from The Toymaker for years. I love it! Sweet and fun downloadable projects that you can print out for your children to enjoy. Lots of fun and neat stuff here! Check out the Toymaker here!

It’s summer break (or about to be) for most parents of school-aged children. Here are a bunch of ideas that are cheap and easy to beat the summertime laments of “I’m bored!”

Get a big box (like from a refrigerator) from your nearest appliance or hardware store. Bring it home and let the kids turn it into a fort. You can help them cut out doors and windows, and set them free with duct tape and markers to make it extra special. If you can get more than one box it’s even better. My kids spend hours/days on stuff like this. Always a popular thing with the kids.

When the cardboard box fort is ready to toss, why not use it for a backyard fire? Make a little fire pit out of bricks, rocks, etc. and enjoy having your very own bonfire. Our kids love it when daddy will make a fire. They cook hot dogs and smores outside and love, love, love it. No, it isn’t healthy, but it sure creates great family memories!

How about a tent? If you have a camping tent, why not set it up in the back yard? You don’t even have to sleep out there–it can just be a great place to play. Plus, it gives the kids a break from the sun! (If you don’t want to sleep out all night, maybe you can organize an outdoor nap at least. That fresh air feels so good!)

Put their art to good use! For many years I bought blank calendars for my kids to decorate. Instead of having the kids scribble on papers that get thrown away, have them do their artwork on a calendar page. You can dress up these pictures with stickers or other embellishments. Older children may enjoy adding some poetry, verse, or story they have written. Littlest ones can at least add their hand or foot prints to a page!! Get enough blank calendars to give to grandparents and aunts and uncles at Christmas time. Mom or Dad can fill in the days of the month, holidays, etc. I got my blank calendars here and sticker packs here. Excellent prices and a great way to have a gift and share the fun of kid art!

My daughter is 11 and one of the things she most enjoys is making beaded jewelry. You can get all the supplies fairly inexpensively at Walmart in the craft section. It is pretty easy to have nice results. Now my daughter makes gifts for people and jewelry for herself and me. She even whips up cute items for me on short notice if I am going to wear something that needs a little jewelry flair. She has also sold her jewelry at yard sales for $3 or so which she thought was great.

My daughter also like Breyer horses and has been receiving these horses and accessories for a couple of years now for gifts. She enjoys setting them up in her room.

She also likes art work. Here is a link to a really neat download for coloring patterns and optical illusions. My daughter really likes taking the time to organize the way she places the colors, etc.

We also have a sewing machine. Although I’m not much of a seamstress, my children will periodically get on a roll with making costumes, doll clothes, etc. from scrap fabric. I buy them fabric remnants every now and then, or get fabric from yard sales, let them cut up old things, and sometimes we go to bag sales at a thrift store and get a bunch of clothes that will work for cool fabrics for the kids to use. They have done very well learning how to sew by trial and error, and are very creative with what they make. They have done this since they were probably 6 or 7 years old.

Play games! So many games are fun and educational at the same time. Why not sit down with the kids to play Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, or work a puzzle?

Get in the kitchen! Whether it’s cookies, bread, muffins, dinner, or a special dessert, kids love to help and taste the fruits of their labors! This year I have gotten small photo albums that will hold 3×5 cards in the photo slots. The children have been asking how to cook, so now they can get a little cooking class. They write down the recipe and instructions and add it to their cookbooks. Educational, fun, and good for memories and a neat keepsake! Plus, when my kids are grown they should have a good collection of all their favorite things to eat!

Grow something! If you have a garden, your kids probably have plenty of opportunities to get involved. If you aren’t so sure about a whole garden, how about just a tomato plant or two? Kids usually love to plant things and watch them grow. Some children will enjoy measuring the plant as it grows and even charting it’s progress.
Paint! I know that several of you are probably about to scream at the thought of your little ones painting. But wait! Shhhh! I have a little secret for you.

Little ones love to paint, even when no paint is involved. When my children were really little I would sometimes give them a little cup of water and a chunky paint brush and tell them they could paint. Sometimes they would paint our chalkboard, which shows up their paint strokes pretty well. You can get down a house plant and let your child paint the leaves. This helps dust off the leaves and encourages some greater hand-eye coordination. You can even let them paint the walls, cupboard doors, sidewalk, etc. Anyplace that the water from the brush will show up with keep them happy and busy for a long time.

Also, I love the water paint books. You can find them in the children’s book area at Walmart or similar stores. These books have pages for kids to paint that only requires water on a brush. The paint is already built in to the page. Very easy, and not too messy. My kids always loved those!

I hope these ideas help beef up your arsenal of Mom Tricks! We need all the help we can get.

For those of you with kids that love to color, especially kids in the 7-12 age range, you will love the cool coloring pages from Raising Small Souls. These downloadable pages have intricate patterns and optical illusions. My 11 year old daughter loves stuff like this, but my 7 year old does too.

Click here to go to the opt-in page for the coloring pages. While you’re at it, check out the site. They have a lot of articles for parents there.

Recently there was a discussion on an egroup I am a part of. The topic had to do with requiring children to take piano or other music lessons as a regular, required part of growing up. It was interesting to see how many mothers had the opinion that musical training was essential for their child’s life and that they would require a certain level of musical training for their children even if the child did not have an interest in it, was not musically inclined, or even hated having to take lessons.

I think we’ve all known of people that were brought up being forced to take piano lessons. My guess is that this was probably more common when people that are now in their 40s and older were children. I never could see the sense in that, and now that I have six children of my own I still don’t.

Although I think musical training can be a good thing, I cannot imagine “forcing” my child to take music lessons.

I think team building is a great thing, but I would not force my children to be on a team sport.

I think healthy eating is a great thing, but I am not going to force broccoli down my child’s throat.

One thing that I have noticed in my own life and with my children is that, with exposure to many things (music, sports, foods, whatever) the children get to “nibble” on things and see what stirs their heart and soul. When someone’s heart and soul is stirred toward a thing, they are much more receptive learners, and more able to learn. When the thing is a chore…..well, they may learn it eventually, and they may even appreciate it eventually…..but it’s still drudgery.

I have noticed that if my children thought we were going to force them to stick with something (a sports team, for instance) they are much less willing to even give it a nibble. They do not feel free to give something a look-see, knowing they are not getting saddled with something they are not sure about. Now, obviously, I am not talking about not following through on commitments to teams, etc. If my child decides he wants to play basketball on a team, we let him know up front that his decision means he will have to follow through and play all season long. Now, this is good because they learn about commitment, and he has to give the thing a good, solid try, plus the child will get enough time with the sport to see if they ever want to play again. They are not going to have to play basketball for the rest of their life until they are 18!

If I was interested in knitting and had learned about it’s various virtues from those that love it, and I wanted to give it a try, I’d want to be able to try to make a scarf without thinking that now I have to knit for the rest of my life. I would not be willing to try that! Life is too short for me to get saddled with a “hobby” that I may not enjoy, no matter how much others love it or find it’s virtues edifying!

Overall, I want my children to be able to explore things until they find the ones that connect to their “bent.” I am not so bold as to think that I already know what these things will be. My children’s lives are planned by God, not by me. I am not going to force their time into something optional when it may in fact be crowding out God’s best for them….whether I see the specific value in that thing or not.

My grandmother was a proponent of requiring music lessons for children, and often told my mother that her children (me and my sibs) would live out the ill effects of not having been forced into this.

Well, I played cello for a couple years as a child and then stopped. Now, I would like to play cello again…and I am going to! Do I wish I had been forced to stick with it? Nope. But I am glad I had the time to get familiar with cello enough to later in my life know that I would like to do that again.

My brother played saxophone as a kid for a couple of years and stopped. Later, in his 20s, he became interested in guitar, ukelele, and many other instruments and ended up teaching himself to play all of them! He is now a professional musician that travels worldwide with his music. Obviously he is not suffering from lack of piano lessons or whatever he might have missed in his youth.

I want my children’s memories of me and our life together while they grew up to be full of thoughts of how they got to nibble and explore, that their parents were humble in realizing that God’s plan is unique for them, and that we were willing to put our own dreams aside in favor of helping that child cultivate their ability to listen to God and follow where he leads. If the child thinks they are lead to car repair and later find out they should become a music minister, nothing has been lost, but my child’s knowledge of listening to God and trusting his parents has been built up. My children know that if we really, really feel strongly about a particular path for them, they will listen because we are not just forcing things on them all the time.

Obviously singing at church or devotions, and some basic music understanding is part of a well-rounded education. Past that, I would not force a child into heavy musical involvement.

I think it helps when we ask ourselves

What do I want them to learn?

What do I want them to carry with them?

What do I want them to remember?

Homeschooling is getting to be more and more common these days. If you are considering homeschooling, or if you already homeschool but are still looking for a great curriculum, you might enjoy listening to this FREE online workshop featuring my friend Jill Evely (she’s also the creator of our Healthy Living products!). Jill and another gal discuss how Sonlight Curriculum has made a difference in their life. Sonlight is a really wonderful curriculum. You can sign up to listen to the workshop here.

Hey gals!
Here’s a little free goodie for you to enjoy with your children. This cute coloring book download features the letters of the alphabet and pictures of animals and plants.

ABC Animals Coloring Book

It’s really pretty and will be a fun activity for your little ones. Even your older children will probably enjoy this since some of the pictures are of unusual animals, and the illustrations are very detailed. I know that my artistic 11 year old daughter will love it.

You can print out as many copies as you need, and you are welcome to share this with your friends and egroups.

Enjoy!

Today I have a great post for you from Melanie, a home education mother of six. You can visit her blog here and her business site here.

Nature Walks - these are what homeschooling is built around! Getting out into nature to explore! Bring those nature journals, sketch some wildlife, write a poem…

OK, here’s for reality of nature walks for our house! Right now Cody is 6 and doesn’t really like to draw - at least nothing recognizable. So forget the nature journal. Nor does he like to write. We don’t really have time with twin 2 year-olds, an active 4 year-old girl, and an 8 mo. old baby who likes motion, to sit and contemplate nature. BUT, we can still learn a lot from it!

Today’s walk included:

Lessons in sharing a stroller. Couldn’t bring the triple stroller with seats for the youngest 3 hikers so they had to take turns!

Observation of “schools” of baby catfish and minnows, water striders and snails. Also many painted turtles. “I didn’t see that one” (crying accompanying comment).

Observation of poison ivy! Thankfully none were infected with it.

Lessons in dodging other families toddlers/strollers in a small space.

Observation of signs of a beaver cutting trees/wood.

2 train sightings, one missed by 2yo Derek. (”I can’t see the train, I need another train”)

Lunch on the boardwalk over the pond - who knows how many pond creatures will appreciate eating someone’s PBJ sandwich…

Sighting of a small snake by Cody & I. 4yo Cora saying “I didn’t see that one” (crying accompanying comment).

Capture of first land snail ever. Loss of first land snail ever as we didn’t bring enough bug containers and it dropped out of the diaper bag.

Multiple dumpings of jar of water containing water striders and pond snails due to lack of level surface to keep container on.

Identification of goldenrod, bee balm, and no touch ‘em (something like that) plants. The no touch ‘em plant will develop a pod that when you touch it it bursts open with a pop! Fun to play with - will definitely have to check that one out another time when they’re ready! These plants are also good for treating poison ivy! Will have to remember that one too!

So that rounds up the highlights (and lowlights) of our adventure. Thankfully 8 month old Judah sat happily in the backpack on mom’s back the entire time. And yes, it was a very worthwhile trip!

Thank you God for nature and all we truly can learn and enjoy about it! Thank you also for this picture-perfect day.

Melanie and company!