Alphabet Blog Hop On Friday: Come Link Up

Do you have an alphabet related post on your blog? 

Tomorrow (Friday) we'll be hosting an Alphabet Blog Hop so everyone can share their ideas for teaching and having fun with the alphabet. Be sure to come link up! 

This will be the final installment of our Alphabet Craze Event, though you still have plenty of time to enter all of the great Alphabet Craze giveaways (listed at the top of our blog).

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Fun by the Yard: Fabric Review and Giveaway

Introduction: Fun By The Yard is a wonderful Etsy shop that carries fabric and trimmings. The shop's owner, Meg is a crafter and loves to help customers find the exact fabric they are looking for. 

Selection: Fun By The Yard carries a variety of fabrics from top designers. Meg also carries ribbons, trim and yarn.

Here are a few of my favorite items in her shop right now.

1. Flora and Fauna, Blossoms in Turquoise 2. Dig It and Play Stripe Bundle

3. Tools in Black 4. Love U in White

5. Zinnia Path in Spring 6. Tiled Garden in Summer

7. Always Peace 8. Rowan Extra Fine Merino Wool Yarn, Marine Blue

9. Hive in Lime

Review:  Meg sent us a yard of Michael Miller, Block Letters in Multi.

Our fabric arrived quickly and carefully packaged. All of the cut edges were very straight and neat.

This fabric from Michael Miller is bright and playful. Emahry and Jonathan both like finding letters and numbers on this fabric and love that the design looks like their own alphabet blocks.

I love the quality of this fabric and can't wait to start sewing with it. This piece will be joining some others in a mini alphabet I Spy quilt soon.

Buy It: You can purchase your own yard of Block Letters in Multi from Fun by the Yard for $7.50. If you need more yardage, Meg would be happy to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

Win It: Fun By The Yard would like to offer our readers a chance to win a yard of your choice from their in stock fabrics. Open to those within the US and Canada only. 

To Enter This Giveaway:

Mandatory
1. Visit their shop, then come back and tell us one item that Fun By The Yard carries that you'd love to have.

Make sure you leave an email address with each entry if it is not posted in your profile. (If we don't have your email address we will have to choose a new winner.)

For additional entries you may do any (or all) of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. If you complete one of the following that is worth more than one entry, please leave the corresponding number of comments so your extra entries will be counted!

Bonus Entries

2. Subscribe to receive free updates through email or our RSS feed (2 entries)

3. Follow our blog publicly through Google Friend (1 entry)

4. Follow us on Twitter ~ leave your twitter ID in your comment (1 entry)

5. Tweet about this giveaway ~ leave the URL to your tweet & include @heart4home & #Giveaway. (1 entry) Feel free to use this tweet: Win a Yard of your choice of Fabric from Fun By The Yard @heart4home #giveaways #fabric #sewing http://tinyurl.com/65pcm2k Ends 4/14

The giveaway will end Thursday, April 14th at 11:59pm EST. We will pick the winner through random.org.

Photo Credit: Fun By The Yard

(While the product review was provided for A Heart for Home, no other compensation was given. All remarks are the personal and honest opinions of A Heart for Home. The prize for this giveaway will been supplied and shipped by the sponsor. A Heart for Home is not responsible for any unsent, lost or damaged prizes.)

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A Few Diaper Winners!

Jolimini One Size Side Snap Pocket Diaper ~ jamiebartley

FuzziBunz One Size Pocket Diaper from Lullaby Kisses ~ VanderbiltWife

Best Bottom Diaper System from Nicki's Diapers ~ Rebecca O.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and took the time to enter!

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Alphatot: Things That Go Alphabet Poster Review & Giveaway

Introduction:  Alpha Tot was started by two cousins, both busy moms who set out to make alphabet posters that parents could love as much as their children.

Selection: Right now Alpha Tots has a wonderful Vehicles, Things that Go Alphabet Poster. They offer this poster as a 18x24 unframed print, a 18x24 framed print and also as a 15x20 canvas print.

Review:  We received the unframed Vehicle, Things that Go Alphabet Poster. The poster arrived quickly and was carefully packaged.

The colors are bold and the drawings that accompany each letter are detailed and fun.

   

We have framed this poster and it now hangs with a couple other alphabet posters above the couch in our living room. Our whole family really likes this poster and we've received many complements on it.

Buy It: You can purchase your own unframed Vehicles, Things that Go Alphabet Poster for only $14.99.

Win It: Alpha Tot would like to offer our readers a chance to win your very own Vehicles, Things that Go Alphabet Poster.  Open worldwide, but only available in English.

To Enter This Giveaway:

Mandatory
1. Visit their shop, then come back and tell us why you would like this alphabet poster from Alpha Tots.

Make sure you leave an email address with each entry if it is not posted in your profile. (If we don't have your email address we will have to choose a new winner.)

For additional entries you may do any (or all) of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. If you complete one of the following that is worth more than one entry, please leave the corresponding number of comments so your extra entries will be counted!

Bonus Entries

2. Subscribe to receive free updates through email or our RSS feed (2 entries)

3. Follow our blog publicly through Google Friend (1 entry)

4. Follow us on Twitter ~ leave your twitter ID in your comment (1 entry)

5. Tweet about this giveaway ~ leave the URL to your tweet & include @heart4home & #Giveaway. (1 entry) Feel free to use this tweet: Win a Things that Go Alphabet Poster from Alpha Tots @heart4home #giveaways #homeschool #alphabet http://tinyurl.com/69od7yw Ends 4/13

The giveaway will end Wednesday, April 13th at 11:59pm EST. We will pick the winner through random.org.

Photo Credit:  Alpha Tots

(While the product review was provided for A Heart for Home, no other compensation was given. All remarks are the personal and honest opinions of A Heart for Home. The prize for this giveaway will been supplied and shipped by the sponsor. A Heart for Home is not responsible for any unsent, lost or damaged prizes.)

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Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me and Marie Learning Review and Giveaway

Introduction:  Ashley is currently an at-home mom with her beautiful and very active daughter.  She taught first grade in the past and holds a degree in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education.  Ashley also has a Master's Degree in Reading and Literacy.  She loves spending time with her family and friends and creating games and resources for teaching little ones. 

Ashley blogs at Me & Marie where you can find tons of great ideas for teaching your little ones. Ashley also has an online shop where you can purchase fun and educational activities for helping your children learn.

Selection: The Me & Marie Learning Shop is filled with adorable games, pretend play props, learning packs, story units and more. You can also purchase packs for preschool circle time. Ashley also offers seasonal learning packs, a dollar section and several freebies as well. All of the items in the Me & Marie Learning Shop are available for immediate download as a PDF file.

Here is a small sampling of the wonderful products you can purchase and download from the Me & Marie Learning Shop.

Months and Days Poster

 On the Go I Spy Cards

The Color Red Learning Pack

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Story Unit

Review:  We received an Alphabet Pups Baggie Game as well as a Letter Cc and Letter Ii Learning Pack from Me & Marie Learning.

The Alphabet Pups Baggie Game is fun, educational and fits inside a sandwich bag. This pack includes the following three games.

Pup Letter Sort: Sort Uppercase and Lowercase letters

Bow Wow Letter Puzzles: Match up tops and bottoms of uppercase letters

Find the bone Match: Match uppercase to lowercase letters

We easily downloaded this game pack and printed the pages on white cardstock. For extra durability you can laminatethe pages (something on my to do list).

I love these games from Me & Marie Learning and the kids have really enjoyed them as well. 

Ashley's Letter Learning Packs are packed full of wonderful resources and activities for young children. Here's a list from Me & Marie Learning of what is included in the Letter Learning Packs.

Letters, Letters, OH MY! Check out all the GREAT materials in this pack at a great price!

Label: This label is for you to use when storing the letter materials. Consider storing each letter in a different bag, file folder or notebook. Use this label to quickly identify which letter is being stored.

Large Letters: An uppercase and lowercase letter is included in the pack. Decorate these letters with the ideas given.

Letter Picture Cards: Four picture cards displaying pictures of items using the target letter of the alphabet.

Letter Poem: A great poem to read together! It is short, easy and contains pictures! Consider having your child highlight all the target letters with a highlighter. Display on the fridge or bathroom mirror and recite often!

Letter Snack and Sensory Ideas: This page of the pack contains a snack recipe focused on the target letter for you and your little one to do together. A Sensory Table idea sheet is also included giving ideas of materials you can put in your sensory tub that start with the target letter.

Letter Book: A fun, repetitive, rhyming book to create together.

Dot Paint Letters: These letters were created to be used with Dot Paints.

Letter Flipbook: A repetitive and easy to assemble flipbook focusing on the target letter. Your child will be able to help read this book with the accompanying pictures.

Letter Hunt: Search for letters in many different places! Look on food packaging, mail, magazines and newspapers for the target letter. Then, glue the letters you found on this Letter Hunt sheet.

Letter Puzzles: Mix up and piece the letters back together! Letter Lacing: Get out the string or yarn for lacing fun! To prepare, hole punch each gray dot on the uppercase and lowercase letters. Have your child lace around each letter going in and out of each hole.

Letter Size Up: Help your little one order the capital letters by size. Letter Sort: Sort the target letter by lowercase or uppercase. Use the sorting mat included.

Letter Writing: Pre-writing and letter writing practice page. Start at the top of the page and help your child practice the strokes needed to form the target letter. Once he or she has mastered the strokes, move on to tracing the letters. After your child shows confidence in tracing the letters, have them create their own letters using the last line of the page.

Letter Match Up: Practice matching uppercase to lowercase with this fun game.

Puppet: Make a puppet to focus on the target letter. Follow the directions on the puppet page to create.

 Here's a look inside the Letter Cc and Letter Ii Learning Packs that we received.

  

  

We printed most of these pages on white cardstock(the ones that would be reused). We've also laminatedseveral items to help them last even longer.

Emahry has really enjoyed these sets, she especially likes all the colorful pieces. Jonathan's favorite activities right now are the do-a-dot pages.

Buy It: You can purchase your own Baggie Game Set from Me & Marie Learning for only $3.00. The Learning Packs are also only $3.00 a piece.

Win It: Ashley would like to offer our readers a chance to win a $10 Gift Certificate to the Me & Marie Learning Shop. 

To Enter This Giveaway:

Mandatory
1. Visit the shop, then come back and tell us one item that Me & Marie Learning carries that you'd love to have.

Make sure you leave an email address with each entry if it is not posted in your profile. (If we don't have your email address we will have to choose a new winner.)

For additional entries you may do any (or all) of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. If you complete one of the following that is worth more than one entry, please leave the corresponding number of comments so your extra entries will be counted!

Bonus Entries

2. Subscribe to receive free updates through email or our RSS feed (2 entries)

3. Follow our blog publicly through Google Friend (1 entry)

4. Follow us on Twitter ~ leave your twitter ID in your comment (1 entry)

5. Tweet about this giveaway ~ leave the URL to your tweet & include @heart4home & #Giveaway. (1 entry) Feel free to use this tweet: Win a $10 GC to Me & Marie, Educational Preschool Activities @heart4home #giveaways #homeschool http://tinyurl.com/478nsf7 Ends 4/13

The giveaway will end Wednesday, April 13th at 11:59pm EST. We will pick the winner through random.org.

Photo Credit: Me & Marie Learning and A Heart for Home

(While the product review was provided for A Heart for Home, no other compensation was given. All remarks are the personal and honest opinions of A Heart for Home. The prize for this giveaway will been supplied and shipped by the sponsor. A Heart for Home is not responsible for any unsent, lost or damaged prizes.)

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Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Magens Bay Review and Giveaway

Introduction:  Magens Bay Designs is Brooke's Etsy shop. It's where Brooke uses her creative talents to share beautiful blocks for children. 

Selection: Magens Bay is filled with gorgeous patterned and personalized blocks for any child in your life. Brooke's beautiful blocks come in a handy canvas bag for storage.

Here are just a few of our favorite items in Brooke's shop.

1. Happy Easter Set of 6 Boy Blue Wood Blocks 

2. Alphabet Wooden Block ~ All Sorts of Animals, set of 6

3. Alphabet Wooden Blocks ~ Bright Stripes, Dots and Flowers, set of 26

4. Sock Monkey Bean Bags 

5. Small Bag of 15 2" Natural Beeswax Finished Wood Blocks

6. Sock Monkey Puzzle Blocks, set of 6

7. Wooden Alphabet Flashcards

8. Alphabet Wooden Blocks ~ Summer Picnic, set of 26

9. 3 Wooden Children/Baby Clothes Hangers, Cars & Traffic

Review:  Brooke sent us an Alphabet Memory Match Game with capital and lower case letters.

Both Emahry (3 1/2) and Jonathan (2 1/2) really enjoy these small wooden alphabet coins. They use them a lot for pretend play, especially when they are "going" to the grocery store or "baking" crackers or cookies. 

We've also used them many time to reinforce the letters of the alphabet and to practice matching capital and lowercase letters.

We ordered our set of of Alphabet Matching pieces with two different colors of font, one for capital letters and one for lowercase letters. This makes it really easy for me (or even Emahry) to separate the letters for different activities. 

I love the quality of these game pieces and that they are sealed with an organic beeswax polish. I also love the cute drawstring canvas bag that they came with. 

Buy It: You can purchase your own Alphabet Memory Match Game for $17.50. This game would make a great addition to a learning at home atmosphere and would also be a wonderful gift. 

Win It: Magens Bay would like to offer our readers a chance to win your very own Alphabet Memory Match Game. The winner will be able to choose the color of the font from black, red, blue, green and purple. Open to those within the continental US only. 

To Enter This Giveaway:

Mandatory
1. Visit the shop, then come back and tell us one item that Magens Bay carries that you'd love to have.

Make sure you leave an email address with each entry if it is not posted in your profile. (If we don't have your email address we will have to choose a new winner.)

For additional entries you may do any (or all) of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. If you complete one of the following that is worth more than one entry, please leave the corresponding number of comments so your extra entries will be counted!

Bonus Entries

2. Subscribe to receive free updates through email or our RSS feed (2 entries)

3. Follow our blog publicly through Google Friend (1 entry)

4. Follow us on Twitter ~ leave your twitter ID in your comment (1 entry)

5. Tweet about this giveaway ~ leave the URL to your tweet & include @heart4home & #Giveaway. (1 entry) Feel free to use this tweet: Win an Alphabet Memory Matching Game @heart4home #giveaways #homeschool #ecofriendly #alphabet http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com Ends 4/12

The giveaway will end Tuesday, April 12th at 11:59pm EST. We will pick the winner through random.org.

Photo Credit: Magens Bay and A Heart for Home

(While the product review was provided for A Heart for Home, no other compensation was given. All remarks are the personal and honest opinions of A Heart for Home. The prize for this giveaway will been supplied and shipped by the sponsor. A Heart for Home is not responsible for any unsent, lost or damaged prizes.)

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Welcome to A Heart for Home! We'd love for you to subscribe

to receive free updates through e-mail or our RSS feed.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you'll be back often! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guest Post: Hands On Letter of the Week Activities

Guest post by Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler

I’m was so excited to be asked to participate in Alphabet Craze! I hope you will find my alphabet learning activities, fun and hands on. I’m sharing a few of my Letter A Activities with you today, and you can click here to see my entire Letter of the Week A-Z Curriculum!

Letter A Memory Verse:

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

For our verses and accompanying games/stories we use the following books:
ABC Memory Verses & My ABC Bible Verses

Apple Large Floor Numbers: I made these large floor numbers so that we can play a hopscotch type game. I call out a number and she jumps to it! You could also have them put the cards in numerical order. The number cards go from 1-10.

Capital A/Lowercase a matching game: This is a great way to match up lowercase and uppercase letters. Simply cut the apples from pg2 and place them on top of the same or opposite letter case on the tree.

Apple Counting: This comes with a number sheet to go with it. I put velcro on the blank squares next to the apples and on the backs of the number cards. Then have your child match the number card to the apples based on how many seeds are on each apple. If you want you can cut each card out and make it into a booklet like the butterfly sample below:

Apple Color Puzzles: Cut out each apple then cut it in half in various ways to create color matching puzzles. Name each color as you put them together.

Apple Letter Matching: This is a fun letter matching activity, that practices both upper and lowercase letters recognition! If you're looking for more challenge, use the uppercase card with the lowercase letter disks or visa versa! (The download includes upper and lowercase letter disks and activity cards) Click here to see how to make the letter disks.

Letter A Do-A-Dot Page: We use Do-a-Dot Art Markers with this!

I hope you like my alphabet activities, click here to see the full set of Letter A Activities. I also make K4 Level activities for kids who are a little beyond preschool, but not quite ready for Kindergarten!

Click here to see my K4 Curriculum Activities!

Click on the images below to see more activities!

Erica is a daughter of Jesus, a wife, a mom, and a homeschooler. She likes to digiscrap and dabbles in graphic design in her *free* time. She authors Confessions of a Homeschooler and would love you to drop by for a visit anytime!

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Quizno's: Any Small Sub for $2.99 Printable Coupon

Print a coupon to get any small Quizno's sub for only $2.99.

{Disclosure: This coupon is an affiliate link. Thanks in advance!}

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Guest Post: Alphabet Box 101

Guest post by Julie from The Adventures of Bear

Alphabet boxes are a fun way to teach your child letter sounds.  To make our alphabet boxes I used a fishing tackle style box that I already had in the house.   I printed out the lower case alphabet, cut it apart and let my daughter help me tape the letters to the drawers.  You could print out both upper and lower case, but I only wanted the lower case to keep the front looking tidier.  We put her Melissa and Doug upper and lower case alphabet magnets into the drawers and sorted out picture cards from a game her aunt had given her.

Then we took the parts of this great game her aunt gave her and I took out all the ones that started with /b/, /c/, and /d/. We named them and Bear sorted them in the three drawers that I had pulled out. We sorted out all the picture cards into all the 26 drawers and eliminated cards that didn’t fit short vowel sounds or started with phonograms (like shell).

However, this game is hard to find.  The same thing can be accomplished with alphabet printables like this terrific alphabet cut and paste at Homeschool Creations.  Or you could use miniatures.  I do have a set of alphabet miniatures to put in the drawers now, but at the time I made Bear’s alphabet box, I didn’t.  I also liked the idea of reusing something and the fact that the thick card game pieces were baby and toddler friendly. We have also used our miniatures to learn phonograms like “oo” and “sh”.

Miniatures are easy to find in dollhouse sections of Hobby Lobby and Michaels, but are just as easily found in your own toy box at home. I scoured our Playmobil collection for a lot of our miniatures.  Also, little erasers and decorative buttons can be used.

How to use the alphabet box: 

First:  Teach the letter sounds by isolating one drawer and showing all the pictures or items in the one drawer. I feature one drawer on my 19 month old's shelf with a sound book and picture book featuring something that starts with that letter (for example a picture book of a duck to go with the "d" drawer.)  

Second:  Use two or three drawers and do sound sorts in which the items are mixed up and the child must sort them into the correct drawers again. 

Third:  Play games by laying out on a tray a few objects starting with various sounds (like a cow, a duck, a train, and an apple).  Then say, "I spy something that starts with /t/," and have your child find the object.  

Fourth:  Use them in conjunction with a moveable alphabet and sound out the name of the object to work on spelling and reading.

The alphabet box is such a great tool in teaching the letter sounds.  I highly recommend it.


Julie is mom to 2 children, aged 19 months and 3.5 years.  A former elementary school teacher, she now focuses on Montessori based education in her home.  She blogs these learning activities at The Adventures of Bear.

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