Betty Lukens Learning Fun With Felt ~ Giveaway!

Our kids have always enjoyed any felt set that I attempted to put together for them. I say ‘attempted’ because these were really basic and pretty boring felt sets. Nothing like the full-color fun designs that are a part of the sets from Betty Lukens.

We were sent four different felt learning sets to have fun with. Here’s what we chose…Forest Camping Adventure, Days of the Dinosaurs, Under the Sea and Adventures in Space.

    

All of the felt learning sets include a 13" x 15" Felt Play Board, over 20 pre-cut felt pieces and a handy plastic storage bags with handles. I absolutely love that the pieces have already been cut out for you. The sets are ready to play with the moment you pull them out of the bag! The storage bag has been WONDERFUL for keeping track of all the pieces and also is a slim case for storing.

The first time I pulled them out with the intention of distracting the kids ~ and they ended up playing for hours! Kaleb even pulled out his toy dinosaurs to interact with the felt set. :)

I was planning to use the space themed felt set a little later for Kaleb {and we still will}, but McKenna has pulled this one out several times to play with already.

The biggest hit so far has been the camping felt set. All of the animals included are much loved especially because we’ve seen the majority of them in our own backyard.

All the sets are ones that we will be using throughout the year as part of our learning time and just for fun! The website has a variety of felt sets to choose from, including felt activity books, Bible felt sets, educational sets and more. The Carville felt set is one that I am sure our boys would love…and is on our Christmas list for them.

Betty Lukens has also offered my readers a 15% off coupon code ~ use Creations during checkout and you’ll save a bit on any order you place!

The Giveaway!!!!

One of my readers will win SIX pre-cut felt sets of their choice from the Betty Lukens site {over a $100 value!!}. To enter, visit the Betty Lukens website and then leave a comment saying which set is your favorite!!!

Want to earn a few extra entries? Give yourself an extra entry and leave a comment for each of the following:

1. If you subscribe via RSS or email to Homeschool Creations, give yourself an extra entry!
2. Follow @bettylukens on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway, give yourself an extra entry! Sample tweet: Win 6 felt board sets, over a $100 value from @bettylukens ~ giveaway hosted by @jolantheerb! Enter here: http://bit.ly/nlnrjP
3. Let your kids play with the online interactive felt sets!

Giveaway Information:

• The give away will be open until midnight EST Monday September 12th, 2011. Winner will be announced by Saturday, September 17, 2011.
• Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, winner will be chosen at random!
• Please leave a way for me to contact you in your entry otherwise another winner will be chosen.
• In order to enter the contest you must leave a comment on THIS post.

This giveaway is linked to Hip Homeschool Mom’s Giveaway Days.

I received four felt sets from Betty Lukens at no charge to use with my family in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I do not have to return the products and I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine…or my kids.

All About Reading Level Pre-1 Review

A little over a month ago we started working ‘full-time’ on the All About Reading Level Pre-1. I had been anxiously waiting for the release of the program for many months and was really excited to see the completed product.

Why? Because I had fun helping create the ABC crafts for the program!! Last fall, I was sent some sneak peeks of the rhymes included with All About Reading Level Pre-1 and helped put crafts together that went specifically along with the rhymes.

Kaleb and I had fun ‘testing’ out many of the crafts in December, but I can honestly say they are MUCH more fun when we get to do them along with the actual reading program itself!

About the All About Reading Level Pre-1 Program

This reading program for preschool and kindergarten age children focuses on the “Big Five Skills” or five skills that are important for children to have in place before they begin to read. Those five are letter knowledge {recognizing letters and knowing names}, phonological awareness {hearing and identifying parts of words}, print awareness {knowing text has meaning}, listening comprehension, and motivation to read.

All About Reading Level Pre-1 includes an in-depth Teacher’s Guide that walks you through the “Big Five Skills”, providing tips for each lesson in the program along with step-by-step instructions for each letter lesson. The lessons walk through the alphabet letter by letter in ABC order starting with uppercase letters and then move to lowercase letters.

Lessons include poem readings, an ABC craft focused on the letter your child is learning, special games, and many additional activities to do together. There are go-along picture and activity cards that are used with the lessons as well as audio books and a cd-rom too. You can view sample lessons at the bottom of the All About Reading Level Pre-1 page.

There will be future levels of the All About Reading program coming too! The next level is scheduled to release in June of 2011.

My Thoughts

It’s probably no surprise that we are loving the program! One of the biggest hits of all has been including the Ziggy the Zebra puppet in all that we are doing! When Kaleb has his ‘school time’ he knows exactly where the our reading bag is, grabs it and waits for me in ‘our chair’ to do his school time.

Although we’d already worked on quite a few of the letter crafts, Kaleb was even more excited doing them this time around because they tied into something that we had read together and were ‘learning’. One of the biggest hits has been the go-along activities and picture cards that we use with each lesson {part of both packages}.

The ABC crafts are simple to do also {yes, they were planned that way!!}. The majority of the items used in the crafts are things that can be found easily in your house or without difficulty at your local store {yarn, glue, tinfoil, construction paper, crayons, watercolors, salt, etc…}. I put together a basket with all of the supplies that were needed and pull it out when we are working on the letter crafts.

We didn’t have anything like the All About Reading Level Pre-1 to use with our older three children {otherwise known as ‘winging it’}. I pieced together things for them and while they have all learned to read, I LOVE the simplicity of the program and the fact that it is all put together in one place for me to quickly gather and use. The only consumable part of the program is the ABC craft book, so it can be used again with younger children, or multiple children if you want to purchase an additional craft book.

Find Out More

The All About Reading Level Pre-1 Basic package includes {you will need to add your own puppet and index card box}:

• Teacher's Manual (208 pages)
• Student Material Packet
  • My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
  • Picture Cards
  • Letter Sound Cards
  • Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
• The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
• Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new hardcover book
• Divider Cards {to keep Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized}
• "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM.

The All About Reading Level Pre-1 Deluxe package includes the above items and also:

• Ziggy the Zebra puppet
• a charming Activity Box to hold your student's learning cards
• All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

This post is included in the Homeschool Curriculum Review Roundup.

Country Hideaway Kitchen {Guidecraft Mom Review}

While on a cleaning binge last year, I hauled our plastic play kitchen out of the house and dropped it off at Goodwill, much to our children’s chagrin. It was bulky and I was convinced that the kids were done playing with it. A few weeks ago, in the midst of our moving and unpacking, a box from Guidecraft showed up on our doorstep and inside was the Hideaway Country Kitchen.

{Insert the cheers of children here}

The kids agreed to play in their rooms for a bit {so that I didn’t have four extra sets of hands trying to help me put it together} and a little over an hour later, they came out to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over their new play kitchen.

 

About the Hideaway Country Kitchen

From the above picture, you can see what makes this kitchen a little extra special. If your house or classroom are tight on storage, the Hideaway Country Kitchen compacts to only 6” in depth with a simple twist of an Allen wrench. Fully extended, it measures 30"W x 15.25"D x 38" H.

Guidecraft also added some great details to this kitchen: beadboarding on the kitchen wall and dishwasher door, an adjustable clock, switches and knobs that make a clicking noise when turned, hooks for towels, a storage shelf for dishes, and an oven with a pull-out rack.

When the unit is fully extended it has a locking bar that drops in place so that it will not fold up and pinch little fingers. The kitchen counter also locks in place with a bolt to further secure the play set. When the kitchen needs to be compacted, it will fold up securely in a matter of minutes to be stored.

My Thoughts

Aside from the fact that this play kitchen is very sturdy and well built, it has been WELL received by our children, young and old. Laurianna is almost ten and both she and McKenna wanted the kitchen to be put in their room so they could play with it ~ and it has been used almost daily since then. They have it well stocked with their doll dishes and are completely in love with it!

Assembly wasn’t extremely difficult, but it did require an hour and 15 minutes on my part. An Allen wrench was included with the parts and the only other tool that I needed was a Phillips head screwdriver. I would highly recommend sorting out all of the screws before starting to help save a little bit of time and help the assembly go faster.

The pieces were all labeled well and the most difficult part for me was getting the knobs on. Out of everything that I put together, that took the longest block of time overall {and I was about ready to just let Rick take care of it when he got home}. My stubbornness persistence finally won and the knobs were successfully attached. While it did take a bit to put together, the result was well worth it!

For teachers that are limited on classroom space or for moms looking to save a little space in their children’s bedrooms, this is a GREAT kitchen to purchase! The product quality is also high, making this a piece of furniture that can be passed down from child to child ~ and even generation to generation.

Learn More

The Hideaway Country Kitchen is available from both Amazon and the Guidecraft website. If you prefer a little more color, look for the Hideaway Playtime Kitchen instead. It features a pink, blue and yellow color scheme and is also available from Guidecraft. The kitchen is recommended for ages 3 and up.

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.

Farm Animal Block Mates {Guidecraft Mom Review}

 

    

It’s amazing how a simple wooden block can be transformed by just a few things. Guidecraft has put together something very creative for children to use during block play ~ Block Mates. From farm animals to trucks, they add a new twist to unit blocks, extending an already great learning toy.

The Farm Animal Block Mates are a set of 5 different animals {cow, horse, pig, sheep, and goat} with each animal in four pieces to put onto a standard sized unit block. The four pieces slide and ‘lock’ onto the corners of the block and fit securely using a patented ‘Slip Grip’ system {see the nifty little grippers?}.

Block Mates are geared for children 3 and up, but when we had company over recently, their {not quite} 2 year old really enjoyed playing with them, and the pieces are large enough that there would be no swallowing issue.

My Thoughts

Prior to receiving the Farm Animal Block Mates, we had ordered a set of the Dinosaur Block Mates for the boys for Christmas ~ so we knew they were going to love them.

Currently, the farm animals reside in our dining room {a.k.a. school room} and have been spending much time on the table during snack and meal time. Usually, we don’t allow toys at the table, but these are just too cute, especially since all four of them are having a blast with them!

Find Out More

Both the Farm Animal Block Mates and the 5 Piece Unit Blocks can be purchased directly from the Guidecraft website or from Amazon. They also have several other Block Mates available: Dinosaurs, Safari Animals, and a few more coming soon ~ Construction Vehicles and Community Vehicles!

Would you like to win a set for your kids? Jodi @ Granola Mom 4 God is giving away a set of Farm Animal Block Mates along with a set of 5 Unit blocks {ends March 28, 2011}.

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.

Animal Train Sort and Match {Guidecraft Mom Review}

Finding great learning toys that can be used in different ways is something that I am always trying to do. The Animal Train Sort and Match from Guidecraft was a toy that our kids have had much fun playing with ~ and finding creative ways to use it too!

When you slide the top of the wooden storage box off, inside you find 43 brightly colored plastic animal and train pieces ready for sorting, patterning, sequencing and more. The Animal Train Sort and Match includes a magnetic building board that props up inside the back of the box and has pegs to help hold the train pieces in place.

There are six double sided pattern cards that your child can use to imitate and build animal trains, or they can create their own train. The animals are all magnetic, so they can be used on any other surface in your house that will hold magnets.

Our Thoughts

Kaleb has really enjoyed imitating the pattern cards and our other kids have had fun finding different ways to play with the toy. He also liked sorting the animals by kind…

Working on simple ABAB patterns…

…and also lacing through the noses or eyes of many of the animals using laces from another one of our toys.

We also built houses using our Rainbow Blocks and put animals that matched the colors in the different blocks.

Overall, I’m impressed with the quality of the toy too. The pattern cards are very durable and thick {I would have a difficult time bending them intentionally}. The magnets are enclosed inside each of the animals also, so there is no need to worry about them falling out around the house for little hands to pick up and stick in a mouth.

Find Out More

The Animal Train Sort and Match is available through the Guidecraft website and also available from Amazon. We also have the Construction Truck Sort and Match and love it too!

Carissa at My Life on a Taffy Pull is hosting a giveaway for an Animal Train Sort and Match from Nov 10th til the 14th, so be sure to visit and enter to win one for your little ones!

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.

Homepreschool and Beyond {Review & Giveaway}

Recently Susan Lemon, author of Homepreschool and Beyond, asked me to review her book. I’ll admit that I let her email sit in my inbox for a few days before agreeing to review it, mainly because I have a hard time reading books that are non-fiction. I do, however, have a preschooler and after reading this statement from Susan, something clicked and I wanted to review her book:

“Many parents struggle to know what to teach their preschoolers. Some take a “hands-off” approach, providing little in the way of educational activities. Others emphasize early academics, drilling their youngsters on colors, numbers, and letters while overlooking play and other experiences that are vital for normal development.

Preschoolers thrive somewhere between these extremes. They need a balanced, faith-based, developmentally appropriate approach that emphasizes relationships, simple daily routines, readiness and reading aloud.

They need parents who make the main thing the main thing.”

Susan Lemon

The subtitle of Homepreschool and Beyond is A Comprehensive Guide to Early Home Education and Lemons provides exactly that throughout her book. While the majority of the book focuses on preschool aged children, additional resources are provided for children beyond the preschool age.

Lemons focuses on providing all children with activities that are developmentally appropriate, not forcing activities on children that they are not ready for academically or even emotionally. Her emphasis is on the 4 R’s: Relationships, Routines, Readiness, and Reading Aloud.

The last ‘R’ is the one that struck the deepest with me. Our preschooler, {as the last of four children} generally gets the ‘mommy leftovers’. This year I am focusing on general themes through literature as the base for all of his learning, so chapter six of her book ‘Teaching Through Reading Aloud’ really hit home for me {you can see a detailed chapter list here}.

Overall, Homepreschool and Beyond is FULL of book lists, recommended resources and would be a wonderful resource for parents of young children to have on hand. Please see Susan's website for tips, hints, articles and more!

About the Author

Susan Lemons is a homeschooling mother of four. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Child Development and taught preschool for eight years. She is committed to helping new and prospective homeschool families get off to a great start. Be sure to stop by and read her blog at susanlemons.wordpress.com.

The Giveaway

I have two copies of Homepreschool and Beyond by Susan Lemons to giveaway to two of my readers!! You can enter up to two times to win by doing one or both of the following:

• Visit Susan’s site and leave the name of one of her preschool articles that became the inspiration for her book.
• Leave a comment letting me know which of the four R’s you need a little help with.

This giveaway will be open until Monday, November 8th until 8pm. Please be sure there is a way for me to contact you ~ otherwise I will draw another winner. Note: US Residents only, please! If you absolutely just can’t wait to see if you win a book, you can purchase Homepreschool and Beyond directly from Amazon.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Susan @ Homepreschool and Beyond for providing the review and giveaway products. This review is based on my own experiences and gives my honest opinion.

Magneatos ~ A Guidecraft Mom Review and Giveaway

 

I mentioned last week that I will be a part of the Guidecraft Mom Blogger team for the next year ~ reviewing some fabulous educational toys and also sharing some great giveaways with you all. The first products we were sent to review were the 36 piece Magneatos set and also the curved Magneatos ~ and they have been a HUGE hit in our house!

What are Magneatos?

The name pretty much sums it up ~ Magneatos are magnets and NEAT, making a toy that will provide hours of open-ended exploration for children. Magneatos are recommended for ages 2+, brightly colored and jumbo in size ~ the perfect size for little hands to easily grasp and manage. Each of the magnetic balls is about 2” in diameter. The short Magneato rods are 3” long and the large rods are 5 1/2” long.

36 piece Magneatos set	24 piece curved Magneatos
12 circles 6 long tubes 18 short tubes	8 circles 4 long curves 12 short curves

 

What can you create with Magneatos? It’s only limited to your imagination!

What Do We Think?

We received the 36 piece Magneatos set and also the curved Magneatos to play with {we now also have the Jumbo Master Builder Series set…yes, we love them that much}. I expected that only Kaleb and Zachary would be interested in them. I was wrong!

All of the kids have been asking to play with them and getting creative in how they use them. We’ve been making animals, building structures of every sort, creating shapes, making letters, discovering what the magnets will stick to {ahem}, and just having fun.

     

The curved Magneatos are available through the Guidecraft website and also available from Amazon. The 36 piece Magneatos set is also available through Guidecraft or Amazon.

The Giveaway

Do you want to know the best part?? Guidecraft has offered to giveaway BOTH sets of Magneatos to one of my readers!! Ready to win??

     

Mandatory first entry: Visit the Guidecraft website and let me know what other product you love! Leave a comment and tell me!

For additional entries after you’ve left your first comment {leave a separate comment for each entry}:

~ Become a friend of Guidecraft of Facebook

~ Leave this message on Guidecraft’s Facebook page:

Guidecraft has amazing educational products! I just entered to win 2 Magneatos sets at Homeschool Creations: http://bit.ly/bbC7Bo

~ Follow Guidecraft on Twitter ~ be sure to leave me your twitter name!

~ Send out a tweet about this contest. You can copy/paste the tweet below if you’d like!

@jolantheerb is hosting a giveaway for 2 sets of Magneatos from @Guidecraft. Enter to win here: http://bit.ly/bbC7Bo. Ends 10/3.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only. Please be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The contest will be open until Sunday, October 3rd at 8pm EST and a winner will be chosen using Random.org.

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.