Nativity Preschool Pack

I was not planning on creating an entire Preschool Pack for the Christmas season, BUT we are “stuck” down south for a few more days due to ridiculous car repair issues. I did not bring school books for the boys so they are continuing to play with the grandparents {who gladly soak up the playtime and are wonderful with the kids}.  I am left with a mind that creates when I am frustrated.  So, thanks to my car frustration, we all have a new Nativity Preschool Pack!

I made an assortment of printables, some to be laminated and reused, some are just simple worksheets.  You could use them all as worksheets, or even laminate the worksheets to use again and again.  If you don’t have a laminator, you can slide the pages into sheet protectors to use with a dry erase marker. I have a few ideas of how to use them all myself and will be sharing throughout the month after we get home and get in the swing of things again!

You can download the Nativity Preschool Pack here! 

Don’t forget I also have an entire Christmas Fun page and you can see the ideas I have collected from around the web on my tumblr site!

 

PS-Aren’t the graphics precious? I broke down and bought them from Stockberry Studio!  I am so glad I did, I love them and hope you do to!

Raising Rocks Stars Preschool ~ Key Cards

Recently a reader asked if I had the review slide {which is included in each Power Point lesson} in printable form.  I did not, but I thought it was a great idea so I finally made a set!  I made the key cards the same size as the review unit printables so you could add them all together for easy storage.

I created the key cards including all the way to the 26th unit, so if you want a peek at the upcoming shapes, colors and sight words ~ you'll be able to see those too.

The key cards are a bonus to the program so they can be found in the Members Only section.  The base printables for the Raising Rocks Stars Preschool program are free and can be found here.  If you have trouble printing or finding things, see this post with FAQ!

Christmas Printables

I have made a few new Christmas Printables in my spare time while out of town this weekend ;-).  You can download them straight from this post by clicking on the image, or you can see the entire Christmas Fun webpage where I have a larger collection of links. Here in this post are the new printables I have created this year!

I made a few Christmas song printables for our “Something Special” music time…

This is a set of alphabet tracers based on a poem I found online {the link is in the PDF file}.

These are 2 color by shape pages I created for Krash {I may make more of these as he really loves things like this right now}

 

There may be more to come, but I wanted to share these now as I know many of you are in full Christmas-swing right now!

I also have an entire Christmas Tot Pack AND I am collecting loads of ideas from others and sharing them in my tumblr site!

Tot School ~ Thanksgiving Break!

~Ladybug is currently 19.5 months old~

We don’t have anything to show for our Tot School except the most adorable little turkey!

 

See Christmas Gift Ideas for Tots here…

More Tot School Links…

• Tot School 2010/2011 Roll Call {and FAQ Clarification Post} –I have finished updating the Tot School roster, please let me know if you are not on it and you have linked up for at least 3 weeks. You can leave a comment on this post telling me that this is your 3rd {or more} time linking up!
• Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
• Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
• Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
• Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
• All of our Tot School Posts
• Visit our Tot School Tools Store
• Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
• Tot School FAQ
• How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)

Play This Way Every Day ~ U-Play Mat Giveaway!

I am excited to share a unique learning too with you…

Head on over to my giveaway blog to read all about the U-Play Mat and enter the giveaway!

A few Black Friday Deals…

I used to be a HUGE deal follower, and now am only a minor deal grabber. A few caught my eye this week that I thought might be of interest to some of my readers. There are obviously MANY more Black Friday deals out there and tons of good deal blogs to help guide you, but these seemed like the best ones focused on my readers, I hope they help some of you! Be sure to note the sale dates, as some start today and some start tomorrow! Happy shopping and Happy Thanksgiving!

Tell Your Time is on BIG sale again! If you missed it when it was launched at a discount price, now is your chance to grab this awesome eBook at 50% off for this weekend only! Simply enter the code: MONDAYBLACK and place your order anytime from Friday at 12:01am through Monday 11:59pm to get the great deal! I LOVE this eBook and the momma who wrote it!

Lillian Vernon has a great Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal combining their 2 best offers {15% off AND free shipping}, click graphic below to see more details about the offer. Lillian Vernon has awesome toys and Christmas gift ideas, we own many of their items!!

DaySpring has a 30% off coupon code: SUPER30 valid Nov. 26 through Nov. 30, 2010, perfect for unique gift giving. They always have free shipping over $50. I will definitely be taking advantage of this amazing offer to buy some gifts!

My mom orders a ton of her fabric for the sewing she does for Little Bits from Fabric.com, and they have an awesome sale for Black Friday, in case any of you are into sewing at all ;-) Just click the banner below and then be sure to enter the proper code to get your discount! These offers are valid NOW {Thursday} through 11/29.

~yes these are affiliate links, so you get a good deal and so do we ;) win-win!

Songs for Saplings ~ Holiday Discount!!!

I am excited to share a special discount code with you…

You all know how much we love Songs for Saplings, and we are excited to partner with them again to give you big savings!  Songs for Saplings is an amazing ministry, bringing the Word of God all over the world through song.  They even have a new 123 CD coming out soon, you can even pre-order the 123 cd as a part of this discount deal!

You can use the 20% discount code: totallychristmas now through January 15, 2011! If you might be ordering CDs as gifts in bulk, you CAN use this discount code on their bulk 12 CD sets!!! {the code excludes the 24/48 CD sets since they are already heavily discounted regularly}.

You can see printables to go along with the entire Songs for Saplings ABC CD here!  We used this CD last year for our In My Heart feature on Totally Tots!

Thank You ~ October 2010

Yes, I realize November is almost over, but my Mommy-brain totally forgot my October Thank You post, and these are important to me as I truly want to say THANK YOU!

Some Linky Love for the following blogs/sites as a THANK YOU for sending loads of traffic my way!

From my Google Analytics report ~ October 2010

Top 10 Referring Sites

1. Homeschool Creations
2. Confessions of a Homeschooler
3. Totally Tots
4. Money Saving Mom
5. Delightful Learning
6. Simple Kids
7. Forskoleburken {how cool is that, I don’t even know what it says!}
8. Grey Homeschool
9. The Relevant Conference
10. Through a Mother’s Eye

Top 10 Visited Posts on 1+1+1=1/October 2010…in case you’re curious where other readers spend their time on this blog {I always love looking at these stats}

1. Pumpkins Lapbook
2. Behind the Scenes ~ Tot School, Where Do I Begin?
3. Something Special ~ Marble Painted Pumpkins
4. Something Special ~ Fall Tree Craft
5. Fall Time Lapbook
6. Fall Sensory Bin
7. Tools for Tots ~ Song Notebook
8. Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays
9. Something Special ~ Pumpkin Songs
10. Something Special ~ Falling Leaves Craft

Finally, a BIG Thank You to our current blog sponsors and/or upcoming giveaway sponsors…

• Ahh! Prods Bean Bags ~ We are truly in LOVE with our bean bag, and are excited to have 2 more bean bag chairs on the way!
• Squishy Tushy ~ simply the best cloth diaper retailer online {in my opinion ;-)}
• ABC Twiggles ~ an awesome ABC learning program online, we are using it to supplement RRSP!
• Guidecraft ~ I am honored to be a Guidecraft Mommy Blogger and will be reviewing their awesome children’s toys all year long!
• Play This Way Every Day ~ Visit my review and giveaway for the U-Play Mat here!
• Pick & Draw ~ Review and giveaway coming soon!
• 33 Miles ~ One of my ALL time favorite Christian bands! We are partnering to share their latest CD with you, which I will be reviewing and giving away soon!
• Flag Page {from Family Matters} ~ I am excited to be hosting a review and giveaway for this awesome tool to help learn more about your child’s personality.
• DaySpring ~ Stay tuned for a review showcasing our actual Christmas card for this year!
• Little Bits ~ My mom makes awesome products and donates ALL of the profits to our missionary account. I will be helping her launch a few new items soon and there will be giveaways involved! Thanks mom for all you do for us!

Do you want to be on our sponsor list? Find more info here!

Christmas Ideas ~ Moms

This is my list of ideas for MOMS! I will link to everything where I find the best online price {most of the time it is Amazon}. Most links are affiliate links, some are not {if I am not affiliated with the particular company}. If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, you give back a percentage to our family…thanks!

Obviously I am forgetting many things I love, but I tried to think for a few weeks before posting this list! You can be sure if it is on this list it comes highly recommended from me!

Books

• Biblical Discipline
  • Shepherding a Child’s Heart
  • Good and Angry
  • Parenting is Heart Work
  • Raising Godly Tomatoes {or visit the site for FREE}
  • Creative Correction
• Spiritual Growth
  • Love & Respect {the best book about marriage that I have read}
  • Seasons of a Mother’s Heart {AWESOME book geared towards Christian homeschooling moms}
  • Proverbs 31: Discovering the Treasures of a Godly Woman Bible Study by, Elizabeth George
• Christian Fiction {I am not a huge Christian fiction reader but these are the few I have read and LOVE}
  • Lowlands of Scotland Series by, Liz Curtis Higgins
  • Deeanne Gist: Measure of a Lady, Courting Trouble, Deep in the Heart of Trouble, A Bride Most Begrudging}

 

Gadgets

• Laminator {everyone knows how much I love this, right?}
• iPod Dock {we use ours for school, we have this exact one but got ours at Target, it’s a bit pricey (it was a gift) but I bet a less pricey model would be equally as wonderful!}
• Label Maker {don’t know how I lived so long without one-got ours and get our refills at Costco}
• Cuisinart Hand Mixer {oh how I LOVE this little gadget, I got mine at Costco within the last year}

 

The BIG Gift {just in case Santa still visits any of you}

• iPod Touch {I own the 32G version 3, I linked to the 8G version 4-which is smaller-I don’t really need the 32G I have, but also is better as the newer version has a camera!}
• Canon Digital Rebel {I personally own the 40D, but the rebel is the best starter dSLR} I get asked a lot about which model of Rebel is best. Honestly-if this is your first dSLR, the lower priced model is great. If you can afford the higher priced model-go for it. BUT-it is not necessary. That is my personal opinion and I know others may disagree. I say the price difference isn’t worth it unless you have future professional plans-and then you’d more than likely move beyond a Rebel anyway. I don’t own either but have seen both and used older models of both.
  • 50mm lens {if you like the blurred background and the ability to shoot in lower light without a flash, you want this lens!}
  • See all of my photography info here in my Behind the Scenes ~ Photography post
• Jack Lalanne Juicer {we LOVE our juicer and have had this exact model for over a year, you can read all of our posts about juicing here}
• Dyson Vacuum {we own this exact one, the DC25 and we ordered ours from Amazon about a year ago.  We LOVE it and yes it is all that.  I hesitated for years to spend the $$ but I am so glad we saved up and finally got it!}

 

 

On MY list this year…

• Bosch Mixer {I have this dream of baking bread like Jolanthe does, we’ll see!!!}
• Rebounder {not sure which one, I am open to suggestions!}

Anything else you recommend that I might enjoy? My parents always ask and I am always at a loss since I don’t need anything!! Please leave your mommy suggestions in the comments!!!

Looking for your children? Visit these posts…

Tot School

~Ladybug is currently 19 months old~

I must admit, I was a total slacker this week and didn’t even change out her toys or trays.  I also was a MAJOR slacker with pictures since my Canon 40D is off being repaired and I struggle even picking my point and shoot up to take pictures {I know, I should be thankful I even have that}.  So, here’s what I did capture of our totally non-eventful week.

 

Her 3 “SAME AS LAST WEEK” learning toys {Pet Sounds Puzzle, Shape Sorter, Honey Bee Tree Game}, she loved her toys AGAIN this week.

 

Her Tot Trays stayed the same too and although she played with many of them, this was the only picture I took of her action!  She was transferring pm poms into a paint tray.

 

She still loves to read, and I often find her like this…

When I need to work and she is clingy, she like to sit up on my desk with me and scribble

 

She loves her new Baby Signing Time DVD…We got #3 and have #2 on the way.  I don’t care for #3 as much as #1, but she seems to love it!  She goes up to the tv and signs “baby” to ask us to put it in!!!

 

Point and shoot camera and all, I LOVE this picture of my bug!  Check out her for-real piggy tails!!!!!

 

 

See Christmas Gift Ideas for Tots here…

More Tot School Links…

• Tot School 2010/2011 Roll Call {and FAQ Clarification Post} –I have finished updating the Tot School roster, please let me know if you are not on it and you have linked up for at least 3 weeks. You can leave a comment on this post telling me that this is your 3rd {or more} time linking up!
• Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
• Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
• Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
• Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
• All of our Tot School Posts
• Visit our Tot School Tools Store
• Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
• Tot School FAQ
• How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)