Amanda's Books and More: playgroup

Showing posts with label playgroup. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Teaching Amanda Her ABCs

Most of you know that Amanda turned 5 this year.

I was concerned that she had to remain in the

playgroup another year before graduating to

Kindergarten (Grade R in South Africa) and
that she'll only be in Grade 1 when she's 6

turning 7.

From what I understand, that's a
whole year later than in the States.
So, I decided to start teaching her at home,
after school. I only spend about 5 - 10 minutes
with her, but I've seen that it makes a difference.

Today I'm sharing about 3 of the books that

I've been using with her. We have several

other ABC resources too. Some are
battery operated with sound. I like variety,

so I don't focus on the same books or

teach with the same method every day.

I also like to be spontaneous. Here's

a peek into a few of our lessons. Enjoy!

First Fun ABC is published by Miles Kelly.

I like this book, because Amanda gets to

practice the alphabet at the top of the page.

Also, the letter that the page is focusing on

is highlighted in the alphabet row.

I noticed that Amanda

was running the letters L - N as one

word, so here we practiced slowing

the famous alphabet song down and

saying each letter name carefully.

I got My First ABC Glitter Book on sale.

It's published by Hinkler Books and they have

a whole series, including Colours and Numbers.

Amanda commented that it was for babies.

I liked the shiny pages. I also knew that

even though it's in a toddler's book style,

it's still right for her age.

I like that each picture has the upper case

and lower case letter. I think it's better

if kids learn both from the beginning.

What I didn't like is that the letter A

on the inside of the book stood for

"alarm clock" and R stood for "rubber

duck." Amanda saw the clock and said,

"A for clock" and saw the duck and said,

"R for duck." This was too confusing.

Amanda got this wonderful Animals, Wipe Clean,

Learn to Draw Activity Book for her birthday

a year or two ago. It's published by Priddy

Books. She used her marker until it ran dry,

so the one in the photo is not the one that

it originally came with, although it does

look similar. This book also comes in a

series, including Letters and Numbers.

What makes this book so versatile is that

it not only teaches drawing, it also teaches

how to write the alphabet in upper case

and lower case letters.

I got Amanda

to practice some of these letters on a

white board that we could wipe clean

and use again and again.

We could have used the book

for this, but I wanted her to

see how the letters make words.

In the last picture, Amanda had a word

with a missing letter. Each time I gave

her a different missing letter for the same

word, to help her see what letter was

missing and to put it in the right place.

If your child isn't old enough to write yet,

you could simplify this exercise using magnetic

fridge letters. Let your child place the

correct letter in the missing space.

I found this neat ABC internet resource today.

It's called ABCya and has free games and apps

from Grade K to Grade 5. I'll let Amanda

check it out with me tomorrow. Maybe

you've already heard of it. I'm living in a

corner of South Africa, so I'm still

discovering these things.

I'm linking with the Kid Lit Blog Hop.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Picture Perfect Party Linky #28

Amanda's playgroup celebrated its 4th birthday last Friday.

These photos were all taken on that day. The kids were at a

nearby nursery with playgrounds and lots of colorful koi fish

to look at. I try not to post the other children's faces

without prior permission from the parents.

Linking with:

Now on to my blog hop...

Here's your chance to link up your Wordless Wednesday (with or without words)

or any picture post at this Picture Perfect Party Linky (P.P.P.L.)! Come join me

(Tina @ Amanda's Books and More) on this fun and easy blog hop!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

If you're interested to be a guest co-host

on my Wednesday hop or my Saturday hop,

please send an email to:

morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

I would love for you to follow me on Google Friend Connect

and also on

Google+

Twitter

Facebook

Leave me a comment with a link and I will follow back!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow me. Please leave a comment so that I can follow back (as long as your blog is family friendly).
Link-up your post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like. Make sure you let them know that you’re following through this P.P.P.L. hop, tell them how you are following them and add your URL to the message, so they can follow back.
Grab the button below and add it on your post or on your side-bar, so that we can spread the word and get more people to the party.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

The Button Code:

This is a blog hop.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #17

This was Amanda's little playgroup's end-of-the-year concert. They sang and danced to three songs, two were in English and one in Afrikaans. She was Marie in the song "Let It Grow" from the Lorax movie and had to sing/say her lines to the original song, which she did super sweetly. She beamed the whole way through and was really brave on stage. Here's a portion of these fun lyrics with Amanda's/Marie's lines in red. You can find the whole version on Wiki.

Lyrics

Crowd song

Sai: You don't know me, but my name's Sai.

I'm just the O'Hare delivery guy.

But it seems like trees might be worth a try.

So I say, Let it grow.

Dan: My name is Dan.

Rose: And my name's Rose.

(together) Our son Wesley kind of glows.

And that's not good, so we suppose, we should let it grow.

Mrs. Wiggins: Let it grow, let it grow.

(crowd joins in) You can't reap what you don't sow.

Plant a seed inside the Earth, Just one way to know it's worth.

Let's celebrate the world's Rebirth, We say Let it Grow!

Marie: My name's Marie and I am 3!

I would really like to see a tree.

La la la la la la la lee, I say let it grow.

Norma: I'm Grammy Norma, I'm old and I've got grey hair.

But I remember when trees were everywhere!

And no one had to pay for air, so I say, Let It Grow!

Everyone: Let It Grow, Let It Grow, like it did so long ago.

It is just one tiny seed, but it's all we really need.

It's time to change the life we lead, time to Let It Grow.

O'Hare: My name's O'Hare, I'm one of you. I live here in Thneedville too.

The things you say just might be true. It might be time to start anew.

And maybe change my point of view.

(speaking) Nah, haha! I say let it die! (singing again) Let it die, let it die, let it shrivel up and - (speaking) Come on, who's with me Huh?

Marie: Nobody.

She was also in a Monkeynastix end-of-the-year event.

You can read my previous post to find out more about it.

Now on to the blog hop...

It's time for another Make My Saturday Sweet (M.M.S.S.) blog hop! Join me (your host) for this fun and easy hop. All family friendly blogs are welcome!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

Also, I'm looking for bloggers who would like to be guest co-hosts on my Wednesday hop and on my Saturday hop. If you're interested, then please send an email to: morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

If you are already following me with Google Friend Connect, then how about following me on Google+, Pinterest and Twitter or liking me on Facebook too. Thanks!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow Tina (your host) @ Amanda's Books and More. If you're following me for the first time, leave a comment letting me know which way you're following me and I'll be sure to follow back.
Link up your family friendly blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Be sure to indicate which one it is in the name.
Grab the button below and add it to your most recent post or on your side-bar.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
Follow at least three new blogs and tell them you found them through this hop. And, they should follow back.

Blog Button Code:

This is a blog hop!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Picture Perfect Party Linky #6

Big brother looking after little sister.

Yesterday we left Jeremiah, who was sick at home with sinusitis, with Amanda who was napping. We told him that we wouldn’t be gone long, but that he was responsible for her until we got back. She had a bad cold and a sore body, so we kept her home the whole day. She cried that morning when she first found out that she couldn’t go to her playgroup. Jeremiah felt so sorry for her. He also didn’t like staying home from school.

Well, when we got home, this is what we found: Jeremiah had put together a picnic for his little sister. This was her first time out of the house that day. It was warm enough outside and there was hardly a breeze, so it was probably the best thing for her.

This is a blog hop.

Here's your chance to link up your Wordless Wednesday (with or without words) or any picture post at the all new Picture Perfect Party Linky (P.P.P.L.)! Come and join me (Tina), your host, every Wednesday and make new friends and find new followers at this fun blog hop!

Here are my easy rules:

Follow me on link 1. Please leave a comment with your blog URL so that I can follow back (as long as your blog is family friendly).
Link-up your post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like. Make sure you let them know that you’re following through this P.P.P.L. hop, tell them how you are following them and add your URL to the message so that, if they want to, they can follow back.
Grab the button below and add it on your post or on your side-bar, so that we can spread the word and get more people to the party.

The Button Code:

Friday, August 3, 2012

Preschool Olympics

I've had a very busy day. When I got to my blog, I discovered that it was in a mess! Something was wrong with the template! I don't design templates and I don't know much about codes. It was a panic moment.

My hubby prayed for me and soon after that I discovered that my new blog hop button had made it to my top 10 popular posts. I decided to see if that was the problem, so I went to Layout, changed my top 10 to top 8, bumping it off the list, and voila!... the template went back to normal. What a relief! Now if it makes it to the top 8, I'll have to shorten my list again, so no more page views on that post! Hahaha! Don't worry; I do want the page views. I'll find a way around it if I have to.

So, you might be aware that I had said I would be doing a series on my marriage. I began with My Husband is a Martian - Part 1. I do want to continue with it, but to write it well, I need more time. Keep a look out for Part 2 in the near future!

Today my daughter participated in her first Olympics… at preschool! The teacher had invited the parents to come and watch. I was the first parent to arrive, bringing my camera with. (I was the 1 camera 1 mom at the event. Hahaha!) Later, one other mother also came to watch. The teacher put in a lot of effort, so it’s too bad there weren’t more spectators.

It was one hour of fun in the winter sun. Yes, we have winter here in South Africa and the kids are all in the middle of their school year!

The kids walked onto the field each carrying an Olympic torch. All the little Olympians took part in all three events. They had a stick-horse race, a bounce race and a foot race. Amanda was the winner in her group bounce race. At the end, all the kids received a coconut and chocolate flavored “gold” medal, a fantastic ending to a fantastic event. Amanda is fortunate to have such a pro-active teacher.

Amanda carrying her Olympic torch.

The stick-horse race.

The bounce race.

There's the teacher in the background.
Here Amanda is winning!

The foot race. On your marks, get set... go!

And their off!

Everyone was a winner!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Learning Good Behavior from a 4-Year-Old

When writing posts about parenting, I usually try to put my best foot forward. Sometimes I allow my readers glimpses of my weaknesses, but mostly the topics give me the opportunity to share from years of experience. This is one of those posts where I let my readers know that I’m far from perfect, because today’s two lessons on good behavior I have learned from a 4-year-old. My daughter, Amanda, is that 4-year-old.

The first lesson I learned is on sharing. I have a sweet tooth. In the first years of married life, if I bought a soft-serve ice-cream and my husband wanted to share it, I’d tell him to buy his own one. If I had a candy bar, oh baby, I wanted that thing all for myself! For some reason, my husband loves sharing my sweet indulgences. It works with him the other way too. If he has something that looks really good, he will never not share it with me. Over time, I loosened up in the area of sharing.

So, what has Amanda taught me on that subject? She has taught me about the joy of sharing. She would rather share her few Smarties (M&Ms) than keep them for herself. You should see the smile on her face when she goes around to every member of our family with candy in her hand. I have tried to stop her from sharing in the past. That’s because we don’t allow her a whole kid’s size box (with M&Ms it would be a small packet) at once. We limit the amount that she’s allowed to eat just like we did with our other kids.

I would reason with her whenever I suggested that she shouldn’t share. My reasoning was that there are six members in our family, and if she shared her few treats with everyone, she’d have hardly any left for herself. Once, I even put my foot down, but you should have seen how sad that made her. I felt really bad. She wasn’t uncomprehending what I was trying to say, she was just finding more joy in sharing than having those extra sweets for herself. Now, I’ve learned that there is a greater joy in sharing than in self-indulging.

The second lesson I learned from her is on having a gracious attitude. Yesterday, she demonstrated it so well for hubby and me. Every Thursday she’s allowed to take her little Disney Princesses bicycle to school with her. It’s part of her teacher’s preschool program for the kids, and she loves taking her bike, but sometimes we forget.

Amanda said to her daddy this time, “Daddy, it’s okay if you forget. Teacher also has bikes that we can use.” Her words were like a healing balm to my soul. If someone forgets to do something that I’ve asked them to do, then I throw a small fit. I need to be more gracious toward the people in my life.

Related post: Learning Doesn’t Only Happen in School

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Measuring Up – 1

Jessica walking Amanda to school.

As I was working on my last post “Some Things Take Time,” I began to ponder these next two posts on measuring up. It’s such an important topic that I took my time writing this, wanting to make sure that I communicate it as clearly as possible.

Does Your Child Measure Up?

Most of us have seen charts that measure a child’s developmental stages from infant to toddler. These charts help us as parents to know when our baby should be rolling over, sitting up on his or her own, crawling and the like. We need to be informed, because we spend more time with our children than the medical professionals do and we might notice something out of the ordinary that they never saw.

It’s important that our children get the professional care that they need, but that is not what these posts are about. They are about addressing the kind that parents do with one healthy, normal kid against another. Pride, not the interest of the child, drives this kind of comparing.

Let me use a short scenario. Dad takes his son Jimmy at age 2 ½ to his very first day at playgroup. While there, Dad meets the father of another boy named Johnny who he finds out is the same age and has a birthday in the same month as Jimmy. Both dads are standing proudly by watching their boys at play. The boys run up to their dads, telling them excitedly about something they had been playing. Johnny is speaking in full sentences, but Jimmy is not yet able to. Up until that moment, Jimmy’s dad had thought his son was a bright spark, but now he begins to wonder.

What would you say to Jimmy’s dad? I’d love to hear from you, but I might not respond to comments on this post as there is more that I want to say on this topic in “Measuring Up – Part 2.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Learning Doesn’t Only Happen in School

Amanda goes to a playgroup five days a week. It’s wonderful for her, because they paint and make things, they sing and dance to children’s music, play on the playground, do movement games and more. For a while now, she’s been learning to write the first letter of her name. She likes to include the letter “A” in many of her drawings and she likes to find it on signs and labels.

Yesterday, I bought M&Ms and shared them out with my family of six. Smarties are the common candy in South Africa, but even though the candies look similar, they are very different to the taste buds. I think my craving for something American was brought on by all the mouth-watering American desserts I see regularly pinned on Pinterest, but I hardly ever buy M&Ms because they are a bit pricy over here.

I enjoyed looking at the colors with Amanda and I showed her the “m” on each candy and explained that it comes after the “A” in Amanda. I sounded out the letter for her too. She wasn’t quite convinced, so I also showed her how her name looked on one of her art projects from playgroup. She has been learning to copy the letters of her first name and so when she saw the “m” on her project, she recognized it.

You can use M&Ms or Smarties to teach a life principle as well. Rob and I were youth pastors in a post-apartheid nation in 1996. I took Smarties with me to one of our youth groups and had the kids observe the candies. I pointed out that even though the candies look different on the outside, they still taste the same on the inside, meaning that our differences are only skin deep.

While we were eating the M&Ms, I took the opportunity to tell Jessica and Samantha the same analogy. Jessica then mentioned how she had been having trouble with a teenager at school making racist comments about people that she likes. I think he does it on purpose just to get a reaction out of her. Anyway, I told her the next time he’s eating Smarties, she should tell him my analogy. Rob and I also encourage her to keep him at arm’s length. I wrote about the impact people have in our lives in “Blessed to Have You in Our Life” along with a word of advice on the subject.