Lowercase Letter Tracing Cards ~ Free Preschool Printables

Last week I shared the Uppercase Letter Tracing Cards with you all and this week I have the Lowercase Letter Tracing Cards to share with you as well. These cards are a great ‘take-along’ activity or just for everyday practice for letter practice and beginning sounds. To use, print the cards in this set onto cardstock, laminate, and cut along the line to separate the cards.

The Lowercase Letter Tracing Cards also include a few additional cards for your child to work on letter formation {see below}.

Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card and put onto a jump ring {key ring ~ see key ring in carousel below}. Let your child use a dry erase marker or vis-à-vis marker to trace the letters and write their own. If you use a dry erase marker, the letters will wipe off easily, while a vis-à-vis marker may require more scrubbing to remove {but will not smudge while your child is writing}.

The Lowercase Letter Tracing Cards also include a few additional cards for your child to work on letter formation.

click on image or text to download

Several of you have asked, so I am working on some number tracing cards to go along with the set too {coming soon} as well as some more fun Preschool Printables I’ve been working on behind the scenes ~ can’t wait to share them! You can find MORE preschool alphabet and beginning writing activities on the following pages:

Alphabet: http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolalphabet.html

Writing: http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolhandwriting.html

Supplies We Use

 

Testing and Water Fun ~ Preschool Corner

This past week we’ve had family coming and going for visits and are also in the midst of testing the older three.

Of course, Kaleb wants to take a ‘test’ too, so I’m working on pulling some things together for him to work on too.

The weather has been gorgeous the last few days {hooray for a break in the rain!}. When the temps hit over 90 degrees, we headed down to the creek for a few hours of fun!

And the water is only about a foot deep in places, but Kaleb insisted on wearing his life jacket and they all had to wear goggles too. Yep.

 

The kids played “Splash Attack” with each other…and Kaleb felt rather victorious after one round with Zachary. I just LOVE the little look on his face. :)

   

Did you all enjoy any good weather this week? Can’t wait to hear what you’ve all been doing in your preschool time. Please know that I DO hop around and visit your blogs, but I’m not a big commenter. :) I am so thankful for all of the great ideas that you all are sharing with me and with others!

Some Preschool Links:

• ABC Printables
• Color and Shape Printables
• Preschool Packs: Policemen, fireman and more!
• Learning Songs
• Math and Counting Printables
• Phonics and Reading Printables
• Science Printables
• Preschool Corner Guidelines
• Preschool Planning Pages
• Preschool Resources Main Page

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

 

Laminating Just Got Cheaper….

You all might be aware that I have a laminating…umm…problem. The fact that I have TWO laminators should be setting off warning bells for all to hear.

But I have a confession. Until recently, I was a laminating pouch snob. Maybe not so much a snob as a big ol’ chicken to try something different unless someone else convinces me. So I let Carisa try them out first and then she convinced me that not only do they work great, they are WAY cheaper.

I ordered a pack of 100 {the Universal Clear brand is just under $10 for 100, compared to the Scotch brand that are a little over $12 for 50}.

Meaning I can laminate even more.

Not that I will {ahem}. But I CAN if I want to.

And I probably will.

Note: Since several of you have asked, I have the Scotch laminator and love it!

Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe ~ Review & Giveaway

I have a bit of an obsession with fonts. I have a multitude of them installed on my computer, but there are several ‘go-to’ fonts that I use when making many of my preschool printables ~ the bulk of which come from the Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe program.

The new Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe can be used to created student worksheets for home or school use. It includes Print, Cursive, D'Nealian, Math, Phonics, Decorative, Box, and Seasonal (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) fonts. User can trace lines, dots, arrows or to work on math and writing assignments.

The Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe program includes a total of 57 Fonts:

• 6 Print Writing Fonts
• 6 D'Nealian Fonts
• 6 Cursive Writing Fonts
• 2 Phonics Fonts
• 2 American Sign Language Fonts
• 3 Math Fonts
• 6 Decorative Fonts
• 8 Box/Block Fonts (New)
• 18 Seasonal Fonts – Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (New)

Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe Download:
Regular Price: $39.95 $29.95

Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe Download & Hard-copy (CD & Manual):
Regular Price: $49.95  $39.95

You can try out the fonts on the Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe webpage. Just select the font set you’d like to test out and have fun testing it.

Fonts 4 Teachers also has a fun new cd-rom called the Pop-up Alphabet, which has the entire alphabet available in 2 Dimensional Pop-up activities. The letters can be used individually or can be put together to make a fun interactive book for your child.

 

The Pop-up Alphabet cd-rom includes step-by-step instructions as well as a video tutorial, but it is really simple ~ all you have to do is print, cut, color and glue. These would be great for preschoolers working on their alphabet!

My Thoughts

I’ve loved the fonts that I’ve used from the program over the past several years. I purchased the initial program almost three years ago and recently upgraded to the Deluxe version.

I will admit that reading the manual is extremely helpful. Who knew? My original purchase was the downloadable version and I couldn’t remember where the manual was on my hard drive. When I received the cd-rom version of Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe, I sat down and read through the manual ~ ever so helpful in showing how to create certain characters, etc…when making worksheets.

If you enjoy creating worksheets for your children or a classroom of children, Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe would be a great addition to your font collection. Downhill Publishing also offers school licenses for many of their font programs, and bundles of other font and software programs.

Win a Copy of Both!!

Downhill Publishing has provided a copy of Fonts 4 Teachers Deluxe and the Pop-up Alphabet for me to giveaway to one of my readers!

Enter to win by simply leaving a comment. Giveaway will close on May 31st at 8pm and winner will be chosen using random.org. This giveaway is open to US residents {or those with a US mailing address} only.

Uppercase Letter Tracing Cards ~ Preschool Printables

These cards are a great ‘take-along’ activity or just for everyday practice for letter practice and beginning sounds. To use, print the Uppercase Letter Tracing Cards in this set onto cardstock, laminate, and cut along the white line to separate the cards.

Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card and put onto a jump ring {key ring ~ see above for an example}. Let your child use a dry erase marker or vis-à-vis marker to trace the letters and write their own. If you use a dry erase marker, the letters will wipe off easily, while a vis-à-vis marker may require more scrubbing to remove {but will not smudge while your child is writing}.

The Uppercase Letter Tracing Cards also include a few additional cards: the words Mom, Dad, a ‘My name is’ and a blank card for you to have your child imitate whatever word you would like to write.

click on image or text to download

Stay tuned for the Lowercase Letter Tracing cards {coming soon} as well as some more fun Preschool Printables I’ve been working on behind the scenes ~ can’t wait to share them! You can find MORE preschool alphabet and beginning writing activities on the following pages:

Alphabet: http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolalphabet.html

Writing: http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolhandwriting.html

Supplies We Use

 

Mercy House and Alpha Omega Monarch Team Up!

Christian homeschool curriculum provider Alpha Omega Publications has teamed up with The Mercy House to provide quality education to young mothers in Kenya, Africa!

The Mercy House, founded by Kristen Welch of We Are THAT Family, is a non-profit ministry in Kenya, Africa that desires “to provide a safe place…proper nutrition…Bible teaching…” life skills and so much more for pregnant young mothers in Kenya.  The house is a place to get them out of the streets, prevent them from having an abortion and prevent their children from being subjected to extreme poverty and even worse conditions.  Be sure to read about the entire Mercy House vision. It’s something that I support 100%!

Alpha Omega Publications has donated their online, homeschool curriculum, Monarch, to cover the first year of the residents’ education.  AOP has a true desire to “make a real difference for Christ in the world” and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to join together with The Mercy House.

And, because AOP desires to help the homeschool community here at home in the United States, AOP is offering you the opportunity to win curriculum as well!  For the opportunity to win a 5-subject set of AOP’s Monarch curriculum head over to this sweepstakes page, fill out the entry form, like AOP on Facebook, and you’re done!

Alpha Omega Publications will be spreading the word about The Mercy House on both their main homeschool Facebook page and Monarch Facebook page as well as on Twitter, so be sure to follow along there for all the details! While you are over on Facebook & Twitter, be sure to like The Mercy House Facebook page and follow Mercy House on Twitter to get a more inside look at what is going on with this great ministry.

Seeds of Character Blog Tour

Out of all of the music on my iPod, the albums that are played daily are our Seeds Family Worship albums. It is music our entire family enjoys listening to and I love knowing that as we listen, our kids are firmly planting God’s words in their hearts! We were so very excited when the NEW Seeds of Character album arrived for us to add to the mix!!

Seeds of Character is the sixth album from Seeds Family Worship and the lyrics from each song are straight from God’s Word {ESV version}. Here’s a quick look at the verses on the new album:

1. More Than Conquerors (Romans 8:37)
2. The Wages and The Gift (Romans 3:23 & 6:23)
3. The Life (John 14:6, I John 5:11-12)
4. The Fruit (Galatians 5:16 & 22)
5. Delight (Psalm 1)
6. Teach Them (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)
7. The Perfect Example (John 13:12-17)
8. Children and Fathers (Ephesians 6:1-4)
9. Put On Love (Colossians 3:12 & 14a)
10. The Character Song (Romans 5:1-5)
11. Give Thanks (Psalm 105:1-5)
12. The Only Way (The New Testament Song)

As part of the Seeds of Character Blog Tour, Jason Houser and the folks at Seeds performed a video for you all, playing the song “Delight” from Psalm 1. even has a special ‘hi!’ to you and me. Take a listen!!

{feedreaders & email subscribers–click over to see!}

More Blog Tour info

The Seeds band will be premiering songs on each of the following websites. Click a link below to hear other songs on the Seeds of Character album.

~ Justin Taylor hosts “The Life” video on 5/17
~ Impress Your Kids hosts “The Character Song” on 5/18
~ Sami Cone hosts The Wages & The Gift on 5/19
~ Dad in the Middle hosts “Put on Love” on 5/20
~ Homeschool Creations {that’s me!} hosts “Delight” on 5/23
~ Tim Challies hosts “More Than Conquerors” 5/24
~ Home With The Boys hosts “Teach Them” on 5/25
~ Angie Smith hosts “The Perfect Example” on 5/26
~ Faithful Provisions hosts “Give Thanks” on 5/30
~ Girl Talk Home hosts “Children & Fathers” on 5/30

Take 20% off your order in the Seeds Music store by using the coupon code HOMESCHOOLCREATIONS!! You’ll love it!!

Knights and Castle Preschool Unit ~ Preschool Corner

Kaleb’s pick for the past two weeks has been knights and castles. We pulled out all of our knights, castles and go-along books and got ready to have some fun together! Every morning he curls up in our bean bag chair and waits for me to start reading to him.

His workboxes were all set up and ready to go, which made it MUCH easier on both of us. He loves being able to pull out his boxes one at a time and work through them all. :) Here’s a look at how his workboxes were set up this week using the parts from our Knight Preschool Pack:

The last few weeks we’ve been using many of the sheets from the packs by sliding them into a page protector and using a dry erase pen or a vis-à-vis pen to do the work. Then on the last day, I pull them out and he uses a pencil to do the actual work on the page. Since I won’t be passing down the packs to another kiddo, I can then save the pages that he’s finished in a folder with his story summary and name strip on the front.

Language/Reading

• We read the story In the Castle by Anna Milbourne every day {other books too, but this was our core book}
• Vocabulary words including knight, castle, moat, drawbridge, sword, armor, etc….
• Tell what happened in the story and favorite part of the story
• Beginning sounds cards {both find the beginning letter and write/trace the beginning letter}
• Rhyming words
• Identifying words in a story

Math/Critical Thinking

 

• 1:1 counting with knights in front of the castle
• Patterning ~ we used two different knights and a shield to create simple {and more complex} patterns
• Puzzles
• What is Different? sheet

Fine Motor/Writing

• letter tracing sheets: letters K and C
• Knight to the Castle line tracing sheets
• Color by Number sheet

Games & Toys

 

• The Knight puppets from the pack paired up nicely with our Tabletop Theatre!
• Knight Game from our pack
• lots of castle play time!

Things We Used

Additional Knight {and Princess} Resources

~ Princess Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1

~ Knight & Princess Sensory Bin from Cindy @ Totally Tots

~ P is for Princess from Confessions of a Homeschooler

~ Knights theme at Totally Tots

~ Crown Grid Game from Mama Jenn

~ Princess and Frog game from Mama Jenn

More Preschool Links:

• ABC Printables
• Color and Shape Printables
• Preschool Packs: Policemen, fireman and more!
• Learning Songs
• Math and Counting Printables
• Phonics and Reading Printables
• Science Printables
• Preschool Corner Guidelines
• Preschool Planning Pages
• Preschool Resources Main Page

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Striving for Excellence or Perfection?

During the month of May I’m reading along and participating in the 31 Days to Clean Challenge hosted by Joyful Mothering. As I was reading Day 12 in 31 Days to Clean about imperfection, this quote from the book really has stuck with me today:

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.”

~ Harriet Braiker

There are so many different ‘sticks’ that I can try to measure myself up against {and I’m guessing that some of you feel the same way}. There is a BIG difference though in striving for excellence in the things that I do and striving for perfection.

Striving for perfection is guaranteed to frustrate me and cause me to feel that I am of little worth. When I do that, I’m putting a burden on myself that I will NEVER be able to carry!

Striving for excellence is still challenging, but a much more manageable goal. I desire to be more excellent in all things ~ my marriage, my parenting, the care of my home, the education of my children and so much more. I will never be perfect in the things that I do, but I can work toward doing things to glorify God.

And glorifying God is something that I do want to strive toward!

 

If you haven’t downloaded either the pdf file of 31 Days to Clean or have it on your Kindle, it’s a great look at balancing the Mary/Martha in each of us in relation to our homes. Each of the 31 Days focuses on the vision for caring for our homes and then gives two daily challenges:

• a Mary Challenge ~ something that encourages and engages your heart
• a Martha Challenge ~ specific cleaning task for the day

Pond Life Preschool Pack ~ Free Preschool Printables

 

We had several great pond books that are sitting in my pile to read with Kaleb. With a creek nearby and several of these animals and such for us to examine, I thought it would be fun to put this together for us to study together. We’ll be using the books In the Pond by Anna Milbourne and All Eyes on the Pond by Michael Rosen as the main part of our study

 

The Pond Preschool Pack includes vocabulary cards {1 and 2 part}, beginning sound cards, a do-a-dot page, tracing strips, letters D and P tracing pages, rhyming word page, a ‘find-the-word’ story sheet, stack the turtles counting, a story summary sheet, ‘find the difference’ page, fish size sorting, and more.

Books to Go-along

 

 

If you’re looking for more Preschool Packs, be sure to check out the growing collection on my website!

Twister and Twister Curves {Guidecraft Mom Review}

  

Open-ended toys, the ones that don’t scream “you have to use it EXACTLY like this!” are great to help kids use more of their imaginations. Twisters and Twister Curves from Guidecraft are construction toys that definitely let your children create and imagine away to their heart’s content.

 

The basic Twisters set includes 66 pieces, 24 connecting rods, and a small pair of ‘pliers’ to pull the connectors out of the pieces. The Twister Curves {91 pieces} set has all curved pieces and a great add-on to the Twister set. There are 66 curved pieces {red, yellow, blue and green} and includes 24 connectors and 1 tool.

Our kids all sat down to play with them together and start creating. Zachary immediately pulled out the small flyer that came along with the set to get a few ideas. The flyer doesn’t give directions on how to make the various objects, but just an example of them.

Out of all of the Guidecraft Toys we’ve played with, this is one that hasn’t been as huge of a hit as I expected it to be, but only with the boys. The toy is recommended for ages 3 and up, but our younger two {ages 4 and 6} were quickly frustrated with it not ‘staying together’ the way that they wanted it too. They could build something, but many times the pieces would fall to one side when they couldn’t use the connectors the way they wanted to.

The oldest two {ages 8 and 10} were very creative in their designs and more patient, so their time was much more enjoyable {for them and me ~ grins}. They actually ended up helping the boys quite a bit with their creations, and then stayed around much longer to continue playing with them.

Twisters and Twister Curves can be purchased directly from the Guidecraft website, via their NEW Facebook page, or from Amazon. If you’d like to win a set for your kids, Carisa from 1+1+1=1 is giving away a set of Twisters and Twister Curves! The giveaway ends Sunday, May 22nd {US residents only}.

As a Guidecraft Mom blogger, I was provided this product to review. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed in this post are mine…or my kids.