Save $25 on What's in the Bible? DVDs Old Testament Bundle

This week is your last chance to save $25 on your purchase of the What's in the Bible? Old Testament DVD Bundle. That means you can get the entire Old Testament (9 DVDs) for only $84.99 after using the coupon code OTSAVE25 and getting FREE shipping within the US. This coupon expires on Monday, October 1.

Our family loves the What's in the Bible? series. So much, in fact that we're using it in a Children's Bible Study and as part of our (practically free) homeschool curriculum.

We also make and use these free printable What's in the Bible? Review Flashcards to see just how much our kids are learning.

If you'd like to learn more about the series from its creator, Phil Vischer, you can listen to his interview from last month on Family Life Today.

Today's question: Have you watched any of the What's in the Bible? DVDs? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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31 Days of Busy Bags & Quiet Time Activities

Who will benefit from this series?

Are you a stay at home mom looking for a few minutes of down time? Are you trying to figure out how to homeschool your children with a baby, toddler, or preschooler at home? Do you work outside the home and wonder how to keep your young child occupied while you fix dinner or just relax for a few minutes in the evening? Do you regularly care for young children? If you answered yes to any of those questions then busy bags or quiet time activities might be just right for you. Coming up in October, we'll be posting 31 days of busy bag and quiet time activities, printables, and links.

What are Busy Bags & Quiet Time Activities?

Busy Bag: a simple, age appropriate activity that can be pulled out, easily assembled and completed by your child. These are perfect for when you need a few uninterrupted minutes but don't want to let your little one veg in front of the television. Quiet Time Activity: generally geared towards older toddlers, preschoolers, or early elementary aged kids who have given up napping. Establishing a quiet time of independent play gives the child a little down time and the parent a little uninterrupted time as well. Even if you work away from home throughout the week, setting up an afternoon quiet time on the weekends can be a sanity saver.

Do these activities really help?

Busy bags and quiet time activities have been such a blessing in our home and we hope they will help you as well! Throughout October, we'll show you how we use these great tools with our own kids and give you lots of resources to begin implementing busy bags or quiet time activities in your own home.

What can I expect to see during this month long series?

During our 31 days series, we'll show you how to make at least 20 different inexpensive and fun busy bags. We'll also show you how we use a daily quiet time for our 4 and 5 year old. As a bonus, we even have a couple baby approved activities ready to share. We'll also highlight great busy bag and quiet time ideas from other moms around the web. Finally, on October 31st, we'll host a busy bag and quiet time activities link up so you can show off the activities you've made!

Didn't you say something about printables?

We're so excited to share with you our busy bag printables. These files will make putting together your own busy bags very easy. The busy bag printables will be offered for free with each of our busy bag posts. Yes, FREE! However, we're also planning on offering the complete set in our Teacher's Notebook store at the beginning of the month for those of you who prefer one download or who want to get started making your own busy bags. Look for the link in our post on October 1st!

Today's Question: Have you ever heard of or used busy bags or quiet time activities? We'd love to hear your thoughts on our upcoming series.

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Alphabet Art Book {Free Printables}

A few months ago, I came across the idea of an Alphabet Art Book on KidsCount1234. I thought this idea would be perfect for my preschooler (and pre-preschooler) this year.

The idea behind this Alphabet Art Book is to practice the alphabet in a fun and creative way. I decided that making a collection of letter inspired art projects would be a great addition to our relaxed preschool approach.

Since, we've just officially started school today (first day pictures coming soon), our Alphabet Art Books are still blank, but I thought it would be best to share them now since most people have already started school.

We have all the individual files ready as free downloads through Google Docs. Just click on the letter you want to print at the end of this post. Be sure to download the activity description page here.

We also have the full set available for purchase through Teachers Pay Teachers for only $1.25. This one file download also comes with all 26 letter pages, the activity descriptions page, and as a bonus, a full supply list for all 26 Alphabet Art Book pages.

Several of the activities have various ways they can be competed, some being messier (aka glitter and paint) than others.

Jonathan and Eliya will be making apple prints this week.

Next week, I'll be breaking into my stash of Band-aids for letter B (they'll LOVE that one).

Download the files by clicking on the letters below. Don't forget to to download the activity description page. Or purchase and download all of the files in one handy bundle for $1.25.

A Apple prints	B Band-Aids	C Car Tracks
D Dots	E Elbow Painting	F Fingerprint Flowers
G Glitter	H Handprints	I Ink Stamping
J Jellyfish	K Key Rubbings	L Leaves
M Marble Painting	N Newspaper Numbers	O O Prints
P Purple Potato Prints	Q Q-tip Painting	R Red
S Stickers	T Toothpick Triangles	U Up Arrows
V Vegetables	W Waves	X X Marks the Spot
Y Yellow Yarn	Z Zigzags

We're sharing at these parties & at this Freebie Linky Party.

Today's Question: Do your children like to make crafts? What are their favorite mediums? (Our kids love paint!)

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What's in the Bible? Review Flashcards for DVD 5

We've finished a set of review flashcards for What's in the Bible? DVD 5. Click on the link below to download for free. Also, check out all of our other free What's in the Bible? resources.

Simple Ways to Teach with the What's in the Bible? DVDs

Review Flashcards for DVD 1 can be found here.

Review Flashcards for DVD 2
Review Flashcards for DVD 3
Review Flashcards for DVD 4

and the newest set...Review Flashcards for DVD 5:
Vol. 5, Part 1: The People Want a King
Vol. 5, Part 2: Kings Make Mistakes, Too

So, if you’re wanting a little extra review to go along with the What’s in the Bible? DVDs, I hope you’ll find these flashcards helpful.

We’ll share the other sets of flashcards as I finish them. Sign up for free blog updates so you won’t miss out.

Today's Questions: How do you help your children learn about (and from) the Bible?

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A Day-in-the-life of our Homeschool Routine

Check out Our (Practically) Free Kindergarten & Preschool Learning Plans.

Since we'll be homeschooling our Kindergartner this year as well as teaching, training, and taking care of three younger siblings, we know that we need to keep our learning plans simple and fun.

We've decided to focus on three to four subjects each day. Bible, Math, and Language Arts will be completed every day and the other subjects will be rotated throughout the week as shown below.

Monday ~ Bible, Math & Language Arts, History

Tuesday ~ Bible, Math, Language Arts, Science (we'll be reading about our subject of trees throughout the week, this is the time we have set aside for a tree activity)

Wednesday ~ Bible, Math, & Language Arts (Library Story Time)

Thursday ~ Bible, Math/Language Arts Review (This is our house cleaning day so this morning's schooling will be very light.)

Friday ~ Bible, Math, Language Arts, & Art

Music and Phys. Ed. get plenty of room in our daily schedules :)

As far as our typical routine goes, we all rise early. My husband, Tim, gets up for work at 3:30AM and is out the door by 4:40AM. The kids normally start waking up around 5:30AM. Many times the earliest riser will find me still in bed (as much as I want to get up early, I'm still waking throughout the night with the baby and find it hard to get up before 5:30). After a few minuted of cuddling I head downstairs with anyone else who is awake. Our latest sleeper usually stays in bed until 6:45 or 7:00AM. Until all the kids are awake, we're typically downstairs reading a book, catching up on folding laundry or just snuggling on the couch.

Once everyone is awake we head back upstairs for our morning chores. We all get dressed, put our PJs away, make our beds and brush our hair and teeth. Then I start a load of laundry as we settle into the kids' bedroom for our Bible time.

During the first part of our Bible time, I get to read the next chapter of the New Testament and write in my SOAP journal while the kids look at Bible storybooks. This only gives me about 15 minutes, but I am thankful to have a way to get into God's word early in my day. When I finish with my reading and journaling the kids join me as I read from their 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories book. We also want to do a spin-off of our Prayer Pail during this time. I think index cards with character traits and fruits of the Spirit would be a good place to start.

When we're finished with Bible, we move downstairs for breakfast. During breakfast we review the Bible verses we've memorized.

After the dishes are cleaned up, the kitchen is tidied, and the laundry is moved to the dryer, we begin our school time. During this hour to an hour and a half we complete activities for math and language arts. Most of our "work" is still considered play and is completed at our small kid's table or on the living room floor.

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, also have an extra subject each. For History this means reading from our History for Little Pilgrims simple history overview book and completing an activity. Our Science day means we'll be completing an activity about trees to go along with the books we'll be reading throughout the week. Art is also an extra subject that will be completed once a week with other various craft projects falling under this subject as well.

Once we have finished our activities for the day (around 10:30), the rest of our morning is spent taking care of laundry and playing.

Occasionally, Emahry, our oldest, will also have an extra time in the afternoon to "work with mom" on certain skills. These are normally when she hasn't napped and everyone else is still asleep.

The majority of the time our kids don't even know they're doing school. We talk about colors while we fold laundry. We talk about letter sounds while loading the dishwasher. We talk about life cycles while raising baby chicks.

We learn hymns (and geometry) while playing with cars and building towers on the floor. We are learning all the time!

Today's Questions: What does your typical homeschool day look like? (Or are they so different that that is just a silly question?)

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Finished Friday #52 {Come link up your projects!}

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

Finally, a week where I accomplished at least one project that has absolutely nothing to do with tomatoes!

This week we were able to nail down our learning plans for the year.

We're thrilled that we'll be spending almost nothing out of pocket for homeschooling our daughter through Kindergarten and our son through Preschool (as well as our other daughter through Pre-Pre-Preschool...and I guess that means the Baby's in Pre-Pre-Pre-PreSchool).

Click here to see what we'll be learning about together.

Of, course we did manage to squeeze in canning three more batches of Spaghetti Sauce. Our pantry is full!

Today's Questions: What projects were you able to finish this week? What to you hope to complete next week?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)
<center> <a href="http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/search/label/Finished%20Friday"target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq160/aHeart4home/FinishedFridaybutton125px.jpg"/></a></center>

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

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Our (Practically Free) Kindergarten & Preschool Learning Plans 2012-2013

This year, we're not planning on purchasing any official curriculum. Below is our pieced together, mostly from materials we already have on hand, curriculum. In a small way I feel like this helps to balance the fact that we're still paying off my Elementary Ed degree :)

Bible
Our children will be learning about God, his love for them, and what they can do to love him back. For our "official" Bible studies we'll be continuing with breakfast readings from 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories. We'll also be walking through the Bible with the What's in the Bible? DVDs and the My Bible Coloring Book.

We'll also be reading from The Jesus Storybook Bible as well as other Bible storybooks.

We'll continue to focus on prayer with our Prayer Pail and we'll keep memorizing scripture with this simple Scripture Memory Box system (which, by the way, we love). For more ideas check out our Raising Children for God Pinterest board.

Language Arts
Our family will be focusing on reading lots of great books together. We'll also be listening to some wonderful audio books (partly so I can get some work done and partly because we all enjoy them so much).

All of the kids will continue to utilize our growing collection of Alphabet books and Alphabet activity books. We will also interact through many Alphabet activities and games and continue to talk about letters, letter sounds and words in real life situations.

We will also be learning and reviewing with several Alphabet videos including Letter Factory, WordWorld (Rocket to the Moon, Lucky Duck, Flying Ant), and free online videos as well. We'll also be attending story time at our local library once a week.

Jonathan and Eliya will also be doing a very simply Letter of the Week focus with a two or three activities each week on a specific letter.

Emahry will continue with simple phonics work and will continue to learn sight words from the Dolch sight word list to help make reading easier. She'll keep reading with Set 1 of Bob Books, which my mom gave us, and will complete many of the activities we've pinned in our Teach Me to Read board. Emahry will also continue to write in real world situations, making to-do lists, writing letters to family and friends and writing labels and descriptions of drawings. She'll also work on writing her full name, address and phone number. We like this website for making handwriting printables.

History
For a general overview we'll be reading through the History for Little Pilgrims that I picked up at Goodwill for less than a dollar. This book has 15 short chapters, each with a simply activity and a handful of questions. We'll go through one chapter each week.

After that we plan on starting a history overview using children's books. We have not decided yet if we'll begin in the beginning with books on the Ancient World or if we'll start closer to present day with an overview of American History. Here's a list of children's books about the Ancient World divided by time period and civilization. My friend, Kristin, has a great list of American History books organized into time periods as well.

Math
We'll be spending the first 11 weeks teaching and reviewing numbers 0-10 with a number of the week for our three oldest children. We'll also be using numbers in real world counting and completing lots of the counting activities found here. We may also go back to the Funnix Beginning Math Program once Emahry becomes more consistent with recognizing written numbers.

Emahry will also be keeping a math journal for recording facts about numbers (or like this), counting, graphing, and pattern work. We'll also add some number activities like this to her journal. We have this Primary Journal with space for drawing at the top and lines for writing on the bottom half.

Emahry will also work on counting to 100 and will begin to work with money, skip counting, and simple addition and subtraction using a variety of books, workbooks and activities. She'll be using some of these free 20 question math practices at least once a week as well.

Science
This fall, we'll be focusing on a nature study of trees. We'll be reading lots of books about trees, starting with this list, and enjoying the autumn weather observing local trees and collecting lots of leaves. We'll also be completing some tree and leaf projects we've pinned here. In the spring we'll pick back up with our study of plants and gardening.

We'll also be studying the seasons through books and activities.

Art
We'll be starting the year with a simple study of shapes and how to draw them. We'll then begin combining different shapes to make pictures. We'll be following many of the How to Draw... activities pinned to our Art Activities board. We'll also have some fun making fingerprint art like this.

Music
We'll be using Songs for Sapling Questions with Answers CDs as part of our Music time this year. We will listen to these 4 CDs throughout the day. I'm sure the ABCs and 123s CDs will sneak into our rotation as well. We'll also focus on learning two different hymns, This is My Father's World and Take My Life, and Let it Be.

Physical Education
Our kids are all very active. We will continue to play at home and at local parks & playgrounds. We will also go on regular nature walks. During warmer weather, our children will regularly swim in their grandparent's pool.

We're counting finally nailing down this plan as our finished project for the week. Would you like to share what you've accomplished? Link up to our Finished Friday blog party.

We're sharing this post at Pin the Tail on the Bloggy Pinterest Party @ Fox Hollow Cottage.

Today's Question: We'd love to hear about your homeschool plans for this year. Feel free to leave a link if you've blogged about your plans.

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Teaching Kids to Read {TIPsters}

Make sure you visit Kristin & Christy for their thoughts on today’s topic. 

Okay, right off the bat, let me tell you that none of my children are full fledged readers. So today I'm simply going to share some ideas, tools, and posts that have been helpful for me as I help my children on their journey to reading.

In a nutshell, the journey to reading starts with learning to identify the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they make. Be sure to check out all of our Alphabet Ideas. If you're looking for an easy way to help kids learn letters and sounds, you may also want to check out the Letter Factory DVD, all of our kids love it! Also follow our Alphabet Activities board to keep up with all the great ideas we come across on the web.

Once children know the letters and the sounds they make, they begin to work on combining letters to make different sounds and words. This is where our oldest, Emahry, is right now. She loves sounding out words and has started reading though Set 1 of the Bob Books.

We've also been working on the Pre-Primer and Primer sets of Dolch sight words to help her develop into a fluent reader. I've been making some fun printable pages for sight words that I hope to share soon.


Here are some other activities that we've tried and enjoyed:

:: Sight Word Cube and Magna Doodle from Life With My Giggly Girls

:: Phonics Flip Book from Kids Activities Blog

:: The You Can Read Program from 1+1+1=1


And here are a handful of posts that give lots of great ideas for teaching kids to read:

:: What to do After Kids Learn their ABC’s: Next Steps to Reading from Teach Mama

:: Teach Your Child to Read from A-Z from Playdough to Plato


:: 10 Ways to Learn Sight Words through Play from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

:: 10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Read from I Can Teach My Child



Also, be sure to follow our Teach Me To Read board for a lot more activities and inspiration.

Check out the blog parties we like to join

This Post is Sponsored by:

Learn Your Letters, Learn To Serve Complete Curriculum Kit

This 240+ page downloadable or hard copy kit includes thorough lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes, memory verses, Bible story suggestions, vocabulary stimulation and discussion, play, books to read and so much more…all while encouraging service to God!

Please visit my fellow TIPsters:

Kristin @ Bits & Pieces from my Life and 

Christy @ A Living Homeschool

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Finished Friday Features and Link-Up #50

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

Our week has been filled to the brim and running over with tomatoes. Thankfully there were a few small ways to get the kids involved, check out the "smushing" going on below :)

But since I talked tomatoes last week, I thought I'd feature some of my favorite posts from July's Finished Friday link-ups.

Please pin from the original sites.

Dorothy shared these drool worthy Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls.

These Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Samantha sound perfect to me. How do you like your chocolate chip cookies?

Speaking of chocolate, Heather shared her recipe for easy, healthy homemade chocolates and I'm so glad she did. Yes, I made them. Yes, they were delicious!

Marissa showed us all a super easy way to gather fabric when sewing. Since I have limited sewing time, I can't wait to try her tip.

Paula also made my day when she posted her secret for an Easy, Five-Minute, Layered Haircut. I cut Emahry's hair and my own hair that same afternoon. We both had great results!

Today's Questions: What projects did you finish this week?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)
<center> <a href="http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/search/label/Finished%20Friday"target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq160/aHeart4home/FinishedFridaybutton125px.jpg"/></a></center>

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Schooling Kids of Different Ages {TIPsters}

Make sure you visit Kristin & Christy for their thoughts on today’s topic. Also hop on over and see what Suanna, our guest TIPster has to say.

Are you homeschooling with more than one child at home this school year? If so, I bet the thought of how to juggle the different needs of your little (or not so little) learners has crossed your mind. How can we, as moms, effectively meet the needs of children of multiple ages? I'm definitely not an expert here, although I may be by the time everything is said and done.

This school year I will be teaching a 5 year old, 4 year old, 2 1/2 year old, and 1 year old. My head is already spinning :)

My plan is to implement 3 main practices.

Schooling Kids of Different Ages

1. Learn through real life. While I'm not officially labeling our family unschoolers, I do believe that children can learn so much by being involved in the ins and outs of normal life-- math in the grocery store, art at the kitchen table, science in the backyard, health at a dental appointment. At least in the younger years, most of the subjects we're required to teach can easily be incorporated in a hands-on, literacy-rich environment, as long as we're aware enough to make them teachable moments.

2. Do it together. The majority of our learning will happen with all the little ones present. While the baby may not be fully involved she'll definitely be close by. Of course, some of our studies (mainly Reading and Math) will be geared towards our oldest, but there are simple ways to include younger siblings.

For other subjects like Bible, History, Science, Art, Music, Health, and Physical Education we'll all easily be involved in the same activities. For example our "official" Bible studies will be continuing with breakfast readings from 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories. We'll also be walking through the Bible with the What's in the Bible? DVDs and the My Bible Coloring Book. We'll be continuing to focus on prayer with our Prayer Pail and we'll keep memorizing scripture with this simple Scripture Memory Box system (which, by the way, we love). For more ideas check out our Raising Children for God Pinterest board.

3. Have fun, hands-on learning tools ready for younger children. Younger sibling don't want to feel left out, so make them some special "school time" toys of their own. We have a selection of preschool appropriate busy bags, craft supplies, and manipulatives ready for our little learners. If you like to sew you could always make an oh. so. sweet quiet book for your littlest ones. (We'll be sharing some of the busy bags we've put together soon.)

So, what will our typical day look like? Well, I'm guessing anything but typical, I've been a mom long enough to know that things never run as planned and that children are not predictable.

But, our little ones will be learning some of the most important lessons of all, how to love God, get along with others, love learning, and put their toys away. Really, what more could we want? :)

Check out the blog parties we like to join

Please visit my fellow TIPsters:

Kristin @ Bits & Pieces from my Life and 

Christy @ A Living Homeschool
and visit Suanna, our guest TIPster.

Coming Soon:

August 21: Teaching Kids to Read

(Remember if you'd like to guest host an upcoming TIPster post, just let me know.)

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