Category Archives: Preschool

Feeding the 5000

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We missed a week due to sickness, but now we’re back in the swing of things, just finishing up Week 28 of the Bible lessons from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum.  I chose to use the story as it is told in John 6:1-13 instead of the suggested passage in Matthew because John mentions the little boy who shared his food and I thought Ian would appreciate that detail.  Our memory verse was “Nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37.

To introduce the story, I told it to the boys using our flannel board set while I read out of Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible.  The story was in several of our story Bibles, but I just had a lot of trouble getting into it this week.  We listened to the ESV story several times on our playlist and enjoyed watching a video, “Bread from Heaven,” together.  It took some artistic license, creating a back story for the boy with the fish and loaves, but it definitely helped Ian understand the story better.  There’s also a a game on the Charlie Church Mouse Preschool CD-ROM that goes along with it.

I have to admit, I was feeling very uninspired this week.  There wasn’t much I could find to go with this lesson from my usual favorite resources.  Then I stumbled upon whenyourise.com. Basically it’s a blog by two moms doing a fantastic job at what I’m attempting to do here.  After perusing their site, I realized I haven’t been tapping into my own creativity very much (something I hope will change!)  I also borrowed one fun idea from them.  We set up all the bears and dolls we could find to be our “crowd.”

 Then I showed the boys our basket with 2 “fish” and 5 “loaves” (goldfish crackers and croutons), though I’d really hidden more of each under the napkin. (Yes, I miscounted my “loaves.”  We fixed it when we started reading from the Bible.)

The food just kept coming!  It was a fun way to have our snack, and Ian enjoyed acting it out so much we had to do it all over again.  Thankfully I had a big carton on goldfish, because it would have been hard to explain that we’d run out of food!

  

I printed out a basket and some fish and loaves (I set my printer to print 2 pages on 1 sheet so they’d be smaller) to put in it. I just let Ian color, cut, and paste them onto a page for our Bible notebook.  This was the first time I’ve had him try to cut things out himself.  It was definitely a learning experience!

  

Our iPod playlist this week was short and to the point, but we listened to it a lot.  This is one of my favorite teaching tools since we can use it in the car or during playtime at home.  Here’s what was on this week:

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks as we talk about Palm Sunday and the Resurrection.  (I try to keep “Easter” as a fun spring celebration with bunnies and egg hunts, etc., while keeping “Resurrection Day” about Christ’s triumph over death.  That way we can still enjoy the fun cultural stuff without diluting the sacred nature of the true holy-day.) Okay, so I got a little ahead of myself!  But at least my planning is done for a while–now I just need to plan THIS week!

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

The Good Samaritan

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Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 is such a beautiful (and rather convicting) picture of compassion.  It was also our Bible story for the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum Week 27.  Once again, I chose a different memory verse (mostly because we just did the suggested verse with a different story).  So we memorized, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  I didn’t include a reference because this phrase is found several times throughout the Bible (in Leviticus, 3 gospels, and even a few of the epistles).  In other words, this is a really important concept for us to grasp!

To be honest, I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water this week.  Our calendar suddenly got crazy last week, and between multiple birthday celebrations, multiple doctors’ and dentists’ appointments, a marriage seminar this weekend, and a few other “extras” this week, I’m surprised we did anything at all!  (And I’m considering taking next week off, since I’m writing this Sunday night and haven’t even started getting things ready for the next lesson.)

Here’s what we did manage to do this week.  We read the story from Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible and acted it out with our flannel board set.  I printed out a hidden picture puzzle and maze for Ian’s “workbook.”  We watched two videos: The Good Samaritan from Nest Family Entertainment and Veggie Tales: Are You My Neighbor? (available streaming on Netflix).  And we listened to our playlist quite a bit as we drove around town:

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

Knights, Castles and the Armor of God

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Knights, Castles and the Armor of GodThis week we took break from our usual school routine in honor of Ian’s birthday.  Instead, we spent the week focusing on one of his favorites subjects: knights!  It seemed like a good tie-in to the armor of God, so I combined the two, anachronistic as that might be.  Our memory verse was “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11 (I just focused on the bold part, but Ian picked up a lot of the rest due to the memory songs on our playlist (see below).

Rather than focusing on one book this week, I kept out a whole basket of books (both fiction and non-fiction) related to our theme.  Some I purchased; some were from the library.  Here’s my booklist:

  • The Armor of God by Dandi Daley Mackall.  (Not bad, but not fabulous.  Just the only book I could find on the subject.)
  • Castles (Usborne Beginners) by Stephanie Turnbull(Highly recommended.  Lots of great information kept Ian going back to this one.)
  • I’ll Be Your Hero by Kathryn O’Brien (Great book about character traits we want to encourage.)
  • Knights in Shining Armor by Gail Gibbons (Another wonderful book packed with information yet simple enough to read aloud to Ian without being over his head)
  • In the Castle by Anna Milbourne (A great introduction, especially for younger kids with shorter attention spans)
  • Will: God’s Mighty Warrior by Sheila Walsh (Fun story to introduce the armor of God, but didn’t go into any specifics about the different parts.)
  • Saint George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges (I thought this would be too wordy for Ian, but he loved it.  I think the beautiful illustrations were what sold him.)
  • Brave Young Knight by Karen Kingsbury (A nice idea, addressing the important qualities of a true knight, but the story seemed a bit too contrived and predictable to me.  I preferred the next book.)
  • The King and the Seed by Eric Maddern (I really liked this story about a simple young boy who becomes king because of his honesty.)
  • Medieval Knights by David Nicolle (Too advanced to read with Ian yet, but I got it for a quarter and it was well worth more just for the pictures.  I’m sure he’ll appreciate the info later.)
  • The Bravest Knight by Mercer Mayer (Fun story, even if there’s not much substance)
  • Good Night, Good Knight by Shelley Moore Thomas (Silly beginning reader.  Ian liked that he could read it with me after a couple times through.)

For his workbook I printed off mazes, dot-to-dots, and some of the printables from Homeschool Creations.   Included in those were some pattern cards (Ian surprised me with how well he did–something has clicked since the last time I tried patterns with him) and Ian’s favorite item: the game.  I guess you’d call it a folder game, but I didn’t put it in a folder.  I just laminated each side separately and then used packing tape to connect them.  The first time we played we used jelly beans for markers, but I decided I didn’t really like handling them so much before we inevitably ate them so we switched to different coins.  So it was a great math lesson all around as we identified the coins, counted the dots on the die, and counted the spaces as we moved.

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I also printed and laminated the Armor of God cards from 1+1+1=1‘s Raising Rock Stars page.  Elijah played with these for 20 minutes the first time!  Sometimes he would hold them up one by one for me to read, then he’d go through them himself for a while, then come back to me and so on.  I think he really wanted to memorize them.  Totally unprompted.  (To be honest, I hadn’t included him in my objective for the week.  I usually just plan for Ian and count on Elijah coming along for the ride when he’s interested.)

I had planned on making a set of  “full armor” as described at Danielle’s Place, but we were so busy all week we never got around to it.  We did have fun making our own shield and sword.  For the sword, I folded a piece of of cardboard around a stick, added the handle from a milk jug, and bound it all together with lots of duct tape.  Ian loves blue, so I used some blue painter’s tape on his so we could easily differentiate between the boys’ sets.

  

The boys enjoyed watching “Knights are Brave and Strong” from The Backyardigans Season 1 (streaming on Netflix and Amazon).  For our Bible notebook we dressed up a paper doll in the “Armor of God.”  (Yes, we lost a shoe.)

Most of our memory work came through our iPod playlist (which also had several poems this week):

Most of those activities came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when Ian opened his birthday present.  This Playmobil Lion Knights Castle (thank you, credit card rewards points!) became our sole focus for the next day or two.  The boys had lots of fun acting out everything we’d been reading about.  (It has now taken up semi-permanent residence in the boys’ room on their train table.)

  

We finished out the week with two birthday celebrations.  First, we went to Medieval Times to see a jousting tournament and lots of other things we had read about this week like falcons, various weapons, etc.

  

  

Then tomorrow we’re having a small party at home with our extended family.  There were lots of fancy castle cake ideas online, but I get easily frustrated when it comes to frosting cakes, so I decided to keep it simple.  Well, fairly simple.  I really liked the idea of using ice cream cones for towers, but I wish I’d doubled the cake recipe so the main part of the castle was taller.  Oh well.  He’s four.  And he thinks it looks great.  And it’s not like it’s going to stick around that long anyway.

Whew!  I’m tired just writing about our busy week!  It will definitely be one of our more memorable “preschool” experiences!

Additional note: The Armor of God notebook page was a hit, and we did it again a couple years later, only this time we used pictures of the kids themselves:

Armor of God Collage

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel's Angel Vision-

“It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so.  But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves.  Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel.”  Cynthia Rylant

We took a break from Five in a Row (FIAR) this week in order to spend some time with another classic fairy tale: Hansel and Gretel.  I chose to use this book by Cynthia Rylant as our main source, though we used a number of other resources as well.  I really enjoyed Rylant’s writing style and her focus on the children’s bravery.

In addition to reading that book several times, we listened to the classic version by the Brothers Grimm from Listen to Genius, as well as enjoying the beautiful illustrations from Paul O. Zelinsky in Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser.  Ian had fun with an Android App from StoryChimes that he played with on my Kindle Fire.  Other than that, we took it pretty easy this week as far as “school” because of a busy schedule.  If we do this story again in a few years with my younger children, I hope to do more, like build a gingerbread house, make patterns with candy, or take a walk and try to follow a trail of stones.

The one big thing we did do was go to see a children’s concert version of the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921), featuring selected songs, sung in English, with a narrator.  Ian was already familiar with most of the music because we listen to a recording of it quite often. It was his first time at a major orchestral performance and he was slightly overwhelmed at first, but ended up enjoying it.  We also watched a video (available streaming on Netflix) that uses a lot of the opera’s music and its storyline (which is slightly different from the more familiar Grimm’s version).

While I love Rylant’s description of the children’s bravery, I think Humperdinck completes the picture with his repeated mentions of God’s providence and protection of children in a scary situation.  His beautiful “Evening Prayer” is one song I don’t mind being stuck in my head.

When at night I go to sleep
Fourteen angels watch do keep
Two my head are guarding’
Two my feet are guiding
Two are on my right hand
Two are on my left hand
Two who warmly cover
Two who o’er me hover
Two to whom ’tis given
To guide my steps to heaven
 
Posted in Literature Units, Preschool

If Jesus Came to My House

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I had never heard of the book If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas until we started Before Five in a Row, but it’s become a favorite of mine.  It seemed like a fitting choice to go along with our Bible story this week, since Jesus really did go to Zacchaeus’ house.  We didn’t do a lot of activities, but the book did trigger a lot of good conversations.

We talked about shadows and enjoyed listening to a poem, “My Shadow,” from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. We also discussed how the dark can be scary sometimes, which led to talking about Ian’s favorite Scripture song: “When I am Afraid” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green. The Before Five in a Row manual had another song suggestion, but I also used this discussion as an opportunity to introduce Ian to Rodgers and Hammerstein with “I Whistle a Happy Tune” from The King and I.  I put all three of these on our iPod playlist, along with other things related to our Bible story.  (The full playlist is in my post on our week with Zacchaeus.)

I love the part of the story where the little boy lets Jesus play with his nicest toys, and even lets him pick the best to take with him when he leaves.  I asked Ian which of his toys he thought was the nicest.  He decided it was his monster truck.  “If Jesus came to visit, would you let him play with your monster truck?”  I’m not sure he was quite ready to answer that question.  He definitely seemed torn!

I put some pages from Homeschool Creations in Ian’s workbook, which he always enjoys.  I also created and laminated some cards with rhyming pairs from the story.  Ian has gotten much better with rhymes than he was when we first started talking about them (about a year ago), but sometimes he still comes up with the craziest answers when I ask him, “What word rhymes with [blank]?” It makes me wonder: does he really not understand the whole concept or is he just being silly? I figure it never hurts to have a little more practice.

This story didn’t “click” with Ian as much as some of the others we’ve done, but I love it because it’s so sweet.  I’m looking forward to re-rowing it with Elijah and Arianna down the road!

Posted in B4FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Zacchaeus

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Poor Zacchaeus.  I don’t think I’d be too thrilled if the first thing people remembered about me was that I was “small in stature.”  Zacchaeus was the star of our Bible lesson from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum (Week 26).  As we read Luke 19:1-10 I realized that Zacchaeus was much more than a “wee little man,” as the old song calls him.  He is a great example of repentance, transforming from a greedy tax collector who thought only of himself into a generous benefactor who recognized how his actions affected had others and tried to make amends.  Because of this, I chose to focus on the Golden Rule for our memory verse: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Matthew 7:12  It’s a lesson I think Zacchaeus took to heart, and as Jesus said, “This sums up the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, this is the key to walking in God’s ways.  I want to start planting these seeds of truth in my children’s hearts now while they’re so young.

As usual, we told the story in numerous ways.  On Monday I introduced the story by explaining what a tax collector was and why people didn’t like Zacchaeus.  Then I told the story while using our flannel board set, which the boys still really look forward to every week.  After that we read it Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible.  Throughout the rest of the week we reinforced the story by reading it in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Rhyme Bible Storybook, and  Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury.   (We try to read/listen to the ESV passage every day as well.)

We spent time with Zacchaeus in a few other ways this week as well.  I printed and laminated a series of picture cards and had Ian put them in the right order to retell the story.  He really enjoyed this activity and pulled them out on his own several times.  He also remembered the story was on the Charlie Church Mouse Kindergarten CD-ROM and entertained Elijah with it on the computer.  (Elijah still can’t figure out how to use the mouse, but he loves watching Ian play games.)  Both boys enjoyed watching the “Treasures in Heaven” video from Nest Entertainment.

For Ian’s Bible notebook, we made a picture of Zacchaeus in the tree.  I painted Ian’s hand and forearm brown to make the trunk and branches, and then he sponge painted the green leaves.  “Zacchaeus” was a print-out from mssscrafts.com (one of my favorite resources when planning Bible lessons).

    

As alsways, our iPod playlist was one of my most valuable teaching tolds.  Our playlist this week contained a few items that related to our Before Five in a Row book, If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas, which seemed like a good complement to Zacchaeus, so here’s our complete list.  Items related to this Bible lesson are in bold:

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

Katy and the Big Snow

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When we read books like Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton, it makes me both thankful and a bit sad that we don’t experience a true snowy winter.  Since we already spent one sunny week focusing on snow (see The Snowy Day), we spent most of our time with Katy talking about the different things that make up a community.  (There are lots of ideas for related conversations in the Five in a Row manual (Vol. 1).

I printed and laminated the “community helpers cards” from HomeSchoolShare.com‘s resouces for Katy.  I had intended to play “memory” with them, but Ian found it challenging enough to just match up the pairs.  The boys are definitely into trucks, so they enjoyed watching the Mighty Machines episodes “In the City!” (from season 1) and “In the Snowstorm!” (from season 2) on Netflix. Ian also really liked a video that has orchestral music written to go along with the story.

100_6667He spent a long time poring over the “map of Geoppolis” in the book and figuring out what each little picture around the edge represented.  So I used that concept to make a map of our area, including all the places we visit on a somewhat regular basis: the zoo, children’s museum, church, friends’ houses, Daddy’s work, etc. I just sketched in the main roads with pencil and numbered each place of interest.  Then I copied little pictures of each place into a document, printed them all out on one page, cut them out and pasted them around the edges with the corresponding numbers.  (I’ve blurred the edges for privacy, but I wanted to share the idea because Ian loved it!)  He asked about the compass on it and it gave us a good chance to discuss directions.

Our messiest (and therefore probably the most fun) activity was playing with shaving cream (almost a whole can!) and construction vehicles out on our glass patio table.  We actually did this activity twice, one time using whipped cream on a tray with some friends who were visiting.  They loved licking their fingers afterward, but the “snow” melted pretty quickly so it wasn’t a very long play time.  I’d definitely stick with shaving cream next time.

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To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.”  Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Jesus Walks on Water

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Ian loves hearing about Jesus walking on the water (especially where the disciples thought he was a ghost), so since this was a review week in the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, I decided to focus on this story for our Bible time this week. However we had a lot of extra activities on the schedule, so I kept it really simple.

I read to Ian from his ESV Seek and Find Bible while he acted the story out on the flannel board set.  I put a maze and a coloring/copywork page in his workbook.  (This was the first time I’ve had him copying letters intentionally).  And we had blue jello for a treat one afternoon and let the boys’ knights and army men “walk” across.  And that was pretty much it this week!

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

The Story About Ping

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The Story About Ping

We fell in love with China this week as we read The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack.  It was my husband’s favorite story as a child (somehow I missed out), so Ian was very eager to read it.  Although we did enjoy a few duck/water-related activities, my main objective this week was to give Ian a taste of China and Chinese culture.

For geography we took our “story disk” from the Five in a Row manual (Vol. 1) and placed it along the Yangtze River in China.  We also watched part of a fascinating documentary series called Wild China (available streaming on Netflix).  I wasn’t sure Ian would be at all interested, so I played it on my laptop during lunchtime.  My goal was just to watch the portion on the cormorants (fishing birds), but he actually enjoyed the half hour before we got there (especially the part on bats).  So after naptime I played the rest of the the first episode and we enjoyed learning about the “dragons” and giant salamanders, and lots more.

Watching a show like Wild China gave us a good opportunity to discuss the meaning of “fiction” as well. Ian kept asking when we were going to see Ping or if each man was Ping’s master, so I explained that these were all real people, whereas the characters in the story are made up and wouldn’t be there.  For a fiction experience, we watched the Reading Rainbow episode “Runaway Duck.” (“Ping” is one of the book recommendations at the end.)  Since Mulan played on Disney Channel this week, hijacked Grandma and Grandpa’s DVR once again and recorded it for us to watch as a family Friday night, just for a little extra taste of China.

I’m not usually big on “go-alongs” (related books), but I thought I’d put a few into our school basket just for a little broader picture of China.  We already owned Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy, so I included those.  I also added Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett.  I love her detailed illustrations (especially the Chinese clothing), and this story is actually similar to “Ping” (the book jacket mentions it as an influence) so it fit easily into our week. (Visit Jan Brett’s website for more “behind the scenes” information on the book.)

     

Our math lesson was pretty simple.  To help us count all the ducks in Ping’s family, I printed out a “worksheet” from HomeSchool Share, but instead of coloring all the ducks (which I was afraid would get old fast), we used our “rainbow stones.”  (We used one color for his father, one for his mother, one for his sisters, one for his brothers, etc., so it was a great visual.  Look at all those yellow cousins!)  Elijah loved this activity and got lots of counting practice playing with the stones as we cleaned up.

For science we visited a local park to observe the ducks.  Unfortunately, so many people disregard the many signs asking them NOT to feed the ducks that the birds have all become quite aggressive, expecting to receive food anytime anyone approaches, especially if they turn out to have anything edible with them.  We had taken a lunch and I thought we’d just sit by the lake and enjoy watching the ducks.  Think again!  First they swarmed around us in such an alarming way, even I felt a little uneasy.  Could I get three small children away from them if they got too bold?  But after shooing them enough with my feet, they eventually left us alone.  Until one decided he didn’t care.  He ran up to Elijah and snatched the last bite of chicken nugget right out of his little hand.  At first Eli was too surprised to react, but then all the other ducks realized he was an easy target.  Of course I happened to be nursing Arianna, so I didn’t exactly have two hands to rescue him (at least without exposing myself to everyone else at the park!)  I managed to stand him up on the bench, but even then a duck took a nip at his shoe.  By this point he was terrified, so I helped him up to the table out of their reach as an elderly Chinese man came over and helped drive the rest of the birds away.  After seeing them go after his brother, Ian was pretty nervous too, and both boys ended up finishing lunch on top of the picnic table.  So much for our nice peaceful lunch by the lake!  Elijah was so upset he wouldn’t get out of the stroller the rest of the time we were at the park, even when the ducks were far away.  Ian, however, did fine as long as they stayed away and started throwing things into the lake (leaves, sticks, stones, etc.) to see what would float.

Little did he know that I had already planned to have a little buoyancy experiment that afternoon.  I gathered various items from around the house and we predicted whether they would sink or float.  Then we tested each one and sorted them into two groups.  Afterward, I asked Ian why he thought they did what they did.  We talked about how the ping pong ball floated because it was full of air, just like the barrel on the little boy’s back in the story.  Ian took the screw from our “sink” pile and said, “This can be the little boy.”  I caught on to what he was thinking and we used a rubber band to strap the ping pong ball to the screw.  I asked Ian to predict whether it would sink or float now, and he said with certainty it would float.  Of course, he was thrilled to be right.  He loved this whole experiment, and as I cleaned up he asked, “Can we do this again next week?”

We finished off our week by taking the train into Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year.   What an adventure!  Lots of crowds, but so much fun! We watched lion dancers, admired dragons, and had a blast throwing down the little “party snaps” vendors were selling on the street.  Ian loved seeing things we’d talked about all week, and he was very excited at the thought of visiting “China.” (I couldn’t quite convince him there was a difference, though after seeing all the gorgeous scenery in Wild China, I hope we both get a chance to see the real thing someday!)  Gung Hay Fat Choy!

To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.”  Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.

Posted in FIAR, Literature Units, Preschool

Jesus Calms the Storm

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“Peace, be still!” Jesus dramatically displayed his power in this week’s Bible story from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, Week 23 lesson plan.  The story is found in all the synoptic gospels, but we read it from Mark 4:35-41 because that’s where the picture was in Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible.  My main objective this week was to help Ian understand the meaning of “peace.”

For once, Ian wasn’t eager to jump into our Bible story Monday morning.  I wasn’t going to push it, but then he saw The Story About Ping in our “school” basket (post coming soon!) and wanted me to read it.  I love our Five in a Row books, but I am determined to keep Bible as our top priority so I told him I would read it to him after we had read our Bible story.  Once I started reading it from his Bible, he forgot all about “Ping” for a while.  Instead, he raced to the flannel board set and had me read it again while he placed the pieces.  I think we did it three or four times before he felt ready to move on.  (And then Elijah, who had been listening to all this from the kitchen as he finished breakfast, had to come in and have a turn with the flannel board.)  Later that day I heard Ian telling Grandpa the story using the flannel board again.  In fact, he asked me to read the story from his Bible almost every day this week so he could act it out.  I think he liked the drama.

The “story” page in Ian’s Bible (a simple retelling that goes along with the picture) stated that Jesus was sleeping in the “back” of the boat.  I read that page to him first, but then every time afterward I read from the Mark passage, which used the term “stern.”  I was surprised that Ian caught the difference the very first time he heard the ESV version.  So I printed out a picture that helped us learn the basic parts of a boat.

Throughout the week, we read the story in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, The Rhyme Bible Storybook, and Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury.   (I try to read from the ESV plus one Bible storybook each day.)  We also had a lot of reinforcement from our weekly iPod playlist:

For Ian’s Bible notebook page, we glued a simple boat craft on top of a page of blue “bubble painting.”  I mixed some bubble bath solution with blue paint powder in a pan.  Then Ian and I blew the bubbles up and repeatedly laid the paper on top to make prints.  When the whole page was covered we set it aside until it was dry enough to glue on the pieces of the boat.

  

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool
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