our homeschooling days: on stuffed animals and how we do bible reading

his little friends and imaginative play

Stuffed animals are the norm around here. I mean, they are a part of everything we do. Everything. There is a new favorite every couple of days. But Cow, Hip{po}, and Ant{eater} remain staples.

This is the pinnacle of John’s imaginative play. He is making adventures for Cow and Hip every day. I used to think that there may be something wrong with stuffed animal play {I thought that for about a minute}.

But they create so much joy in my son’s life. They ground him. They are always in the car with us. We place limits on this, i.e. they have never been into the store or church or a friend’s house and we set that precedent early. “Cow and Hip are dancing in the car while we shop.” And they are grocery shopping or out for a late night if we can’t find them {which is pretty rare because they are always with us}. But he always needs their kisses at the end of the night, most the time more than he needs mine.

May has followed suit.  Always needing her babies or a newly adopted little puppy dog.  She is not attached to only one baby doll, however, and she often will pick a different one to be her favorite for a couple days or so.  But they both love to talk to and create with these imaginary friends.  This is who they are.  And I love that my children can share this passion and love for their little friends together — they are both respected in this play time which is so comforting and beautiful to see.

So here they are, John’s trusty three, eating their dinners one sweet night. Ants for Ant. Watermelon for Hip and carrots for Cow because he couldn’t find grass.

So many children’s Bibles, so little time

We are beginning God’s Little Explorers — a wonderfully biblically based preschool program.  Every week focuses on one story of the Bible with activities and crafts and a letter focus too.  We will pick and choose — and there is so much to choose from!  And we will be sharing some of what we do here.  {This full curriculum is only $17 and I highly recommend it!}

Since we already have a nice “groove” as far as reading together, playing together, creating art together, working on our letters and sounds both tactilely and handwriting, and still working on counting and recitation, we aren’t focusing on the letter portion of God’s Little Explorers — we are moving with the interests of my children!!  If they seem excited, then we will continue on a certain subject, if not, we move on.  I consider this curriculum to be our solid Biblical foundation, a time to dig deeper into the Bible stories.

There are so many children’s Bibles to choose from.  And this is a wonderful thing.  They all have wonderful {and not so wonderful} qualities.  There are things I love about each.  I wrote more details on each in our Jesus Resources post.  For us, there were so many Bibles around — and we are so blessed by this — but I wanted to stay consistent on what we were reading.  This helps the children sequence the events of the Bible somewhat, and helps keep me sane as well — though if John wants to read David and Goliath ten times one day that is fine too!!

• We read the Bible in the mornings, or at lunch if I’ve forgotten or had to do dishes, etc.. {We were reading the My First Hands On Bible  during breakfasts until we recently finished it, and even made a Preschool Bible Notebook to go with it. Now we are reading the Jesus Calling Bible Storybook.}

• We read the Read and Learn Bible for God’s Little Explorers time — this is the Bible he is opening {as part of a treasure hung — God’s Word is a Treasure!} below and it will only be used for this special preschool time. {The curriculum also could be used with the Jesus Storybook Bible.}

• And we read the New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes at night — one or two stories before bed, after one or two children’s books.  We love that the kids are still excited to read God’s Word and the lessons they teach us!

May loves to stamp and asks for page after page.  She creates a masterpiece and knows when she wants to start and begin!  We love our alphabet stamps with stamp pad. John loves the little cow stamp from our farm stamp set — he has for two years now, oh my boy. We did more painting — and wrote more stories along the way — see storytelling through painting. Placing jewel stickers on her name {yes, I know the ending mem is backwards}.
Rubbing quarters and discovering coins and their shapes and colors. Buzz Lightyear made an appearance to practice more dry erase handwriting on page protectors.  Check out our new preschool handwriting pages. Masterpieces for the day.  All of these, but two, are May’s. Drawing and coloring at the table with baskets of materials. John tried writing his numbers this week. Visiting an amazing museum and appreciating a lot of {breakable} and priceless art. There is our week.  Enjoying the children and these days.  Read and play.  With each of them.  Every day.  That is my promise to them.