You're A Grand Old Flag - American Flag Lesson Plan

     In honor of our National Independence Day, I introduced Marley and Dylan to the significance of the American Flag.  We started out by watching a few episodes of Liberty's Kids which is not 100% historically accurate (or so I've heard), but gives a good foundation for historical timing and the general idea behind the beginning of the USA.  Children love these cartoons too!  We made our own flags and discussed the symbolism of the flag. We also started memorizing some flags from other countries as well.  Here is my lesson plan laid out:

PICTURE BOOKS: - Our American Flag - F Is for Flag
EARLY READER BOOKS: - Red, White, and Blue    EDUCATIONAL BOOKS: - The American Flag - Why Are There Stripes on the American Flag?
WORKSHEETS: - Printable American Flag - U.S. Flag Fill in the Blank - American Flag Coloring Pages
ARTS & CRAFTS: - Construct Your Own US Flag - Dot Art American Flag
GAMES/ACTIVITIES: - Name That Flag Online Game - Build A Flag Game
VIDEOS: - Liberty's Kids: The First 4th of July - Schoolhouse Rock: Independence Day

A couple too many states, but at least Marley got the number of red stripes right. ;)

A toddler's version of the flag.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

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Egglo Entertainment: Easter Eggs That GLOW! {Review}

     With Easter coming up, we need to start thinking about our plans and ways to celebrate the holiday.  Our church usually puts together a small and simple Easter egg hunt.  It is always fun.  But I think one of the biggest concerns that most religious people have about Easter is that we celebrate without fully grasping the purpose of the holiday and remembering the meaning of Easter.  Easter is about the atonement of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  It signifies the importance of his crucifixion and resurrection.  We celebrate Easter to pay respect to his suffering for us and our salvation.  These things don't normally come across in a basic Easter egg hunt.  And don't even get me started on the ridiculous tradition of the Easter Bunny. ;)  When I heard about Egglo Easter Eggs, I was so excited to try them out!

PRODUCTS
     These Egglo Easter Eggs are made by Egglo Entertainment, and they actually glow in the dark!  The idea behind these eggs, is that you can provide an Easter Egg Hunt for your kids, but explain to them that part of celebrating Easter is trying to find the "Light of Christ."  I LOVED the concept right away!  Egglo Entertainment also offers many products sold separately that can enhance the experience of these glow-in-the-dark eggs.  They have mini scrolls with scriptures, that can be placed inside the eggs.  They have stickers that can be purchased.  They have an adorable storybook called the Egg-cellent Easter Adventure, which takes some children on an adventure through some bible scenarios.  I really liked the story and the illustrations were great!  Egglo Entertainment also offers a complete curriculum guide to go along with their products.  I thought the curriculum guide was very well done, with specific step by step instructions on how to put together an effective and spiritual Easter Egg Hunt.  All of these products are sold separately for fees ranging from $3 to $15, or they come in a package deal of $50.  I think the price is very reasonable considering it is something that can be used over and over again.

OUR EXPERIENCE
     We have a Family Night every Monday and this was a perfect opportunity to give the Egglo Eggs a try.  I read the Egg-cellent Easter Adventure to my kids.  The characters were cute and had relatable personalities.  In this story the kids go on an adventure looking for a glowing Easter egg.  The story was fun and kept their attention.  I did a brief explanation of why we celebrate Easter and said, "Now we are going to go find the light of Christ."  We turned out the lights and let the kids find their eggs.  They had a blast and were excited to find the glowing eggs hidden throughout the house.  We placed a starburst and a scripture scroll inside each egg.  The girls ate their candy happily and were excited to open up the scrolls and have us read it to them.  It was a great way to integrate scripture study and spiritual remembrance of our Savior.
     My only criticism is that the eggs need to be placed under light for at least a half hour in order for them to glow, but that is the case with any glowing products.  When they are ready to glow the glow is bright enough to see in the dark, but the eggs do not glow super bright by any means.
     One of the best parts about the eggs is that you can use them year after year.  I plan to recommend these eggs to my church for their next Easter activity, since all these products can easily be adapted to fit any Christian church.  But I am thrilled I have the opportunity to use these with my kids for Easter or other fun activities as a family.  They loved the eggs so much, that I had to hide them. Haha! ;)
I really love these glow-in-the-dark-eggs and I am confident it will continue to bring a more spiritual experience to our family Easter tradition.
Thanks Egglo Entertainment! God Bless.

   

   

 

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Presidents Day - Field Trip to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum

     On Presidents Day, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum gives free admission and cherry pie to the first 300 guests.  Such a fun way to celebrate the day and to experience an educational feel trip with the family!  We arrived a half hour early and barely made the cut, but as you can see..we got our cherry pie and my girls were thrilled about it.

Yummy cherry pie!

     This was my first visit to the museum and I was very impressed.  Inside the museum there were interesting facts at every corner.  The rooms were gorgeous and full of educational information and historical significance.

Marley posing as if fascinated. Haha. Silly girl.

Our future leaders. ;)

"DO NOT TOUCH" - What better place to break the rules than the Nixon Museum.  Haha, just kidding! My Dylan is always getting into trouble. 

The Declaration of Independence is my favorite!

     The grounds were beautiful and I loved that there were plenty of grassy areas where children can run and play.  We sat in the middle of the courtyard and ate our lunch on the lawn.  It was a perfect sunny and beautiful day for the occasion!

We got to go inside of the presidential helicopter.  Dylan was especially excited about it.

     My girls are still a little too young to really appreciate what is offered, but they still had a great time and said they would love to come back.

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A More Christ-Centered Holiday with "12 Days of Christmas"

      Ever since I was a child, I have felt that Christmas is way too commercialized.  It comes and goes every year with the main focus on gifts and people never having thought of the true meaning or why Christmas is so important to the world.  I have always had a strong faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, and I have a deep respect and love for the Christmas spirit.  Believe it or not, when I was a young teen, I begged my parents to have a Christmas without presents and just dedicate it to family time.  My parents just laughed at me and said, "Yeah, sure." They had problems recognizing the truly important things in life.  No dice.  We got plenty of presents, but no quality time with the family.  I don't remember what gifts I received.  I just remember feeling sad and lonely.  I remember feeling ashamed that my family did not once stop and talk about the birth of Christ on Christmas Day.

     All those years inspired me to do more for my family and for my kids.  I had vowed that I would teach my children about the significance of Christmas and the value of family togetherness.  I knew things would be different for my family.  Luckily, my husband Daniel was on board and has always made endless efforts to better our life for our family.  Every year, we attempt to make Christmas more Christ-centered, spiritual, and memorably fun.
   
     This year we decided to start limiting presents to three gifts per child.  With each gift representing the gifts given to Jesus: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  We will be explaining to our children the meaning behind each gift.

• GOLD: This gift will be something that the child has been wanting; that special gift they have been asking for.  
• FRANKINCENSE: This gift will be something for their body.  It could be something to encourage health, or maybe clothing.  
• MYRRH: This gift will be something that enriches the mind or spirit.  It might be something of spiritual or sentimental value, or an educational present.  

These specific guidelines made it much easier to make out our Christmas shopping list this year! And helped us stay within a decent budget.
   
     Another tradition we are starting this year is "12 Days of Christmas Family Fun."  I have a list of (free or inexpensive) activities for the family to do together every evening for the 12 days that lead up to Christmas.  I ordered these adorable Small Red Envelopes and then I used these Printable Tags link to paste on our envelopes. I printed out this Free Tag Template and wrote one activity on each tag and placed them inside the envelopes. They turned out so cute!!

I plan to hide them in the tree and ask my girls to find the right number each day.  I figured this is a good tradition to have if we want to focus on quality family memories, instead of focusing on Christmas gifts. And guess what?  Finding the envelopes will be a fun educational way for my girls to practice their numbers! Homeschooling score!

Here is my list of activities. But shhhh! Don't tell my girls. ;)

 1)  Play a board game or put together a puzzle
 2)  Do a service project
 3)  Movie night
 4)  See Christmas lights and drink hot cocoa
 5)  See the temple Christmas lights
 6)  Play an active game (like hide & seek or tag or a sport)
 7)  Go ice skating
 8)  Bake treats or make a gingerbread nativity scene
 9)  Talk a walk on the pier and eat ice cream
10)  Make ornaments or another craft
11)  Read aloud the nativity story (I bought The Christmas Story book which is perfect for preschool kids!) and sing Christmas Carols around the tree
12)  Gifts on Christmas Day!!

     In case you were wondering, we still "do Santa."  We love Santa and the fun childhood traditions that come with Santa Claus: pictures with Santa, letters to Santa, stockings filled with goodies from Santa.  And to be honest, I'm pretty certain my 4 year old is perfectly aware of the Santa tradition.  She has expressed to me how she thinks it's fun to pretend we are giving each other gifts from Santa, haha.  We didn't say anything to her. I guess she figured it out on her own, but since we daily encourage pretend and magic play, it doesn't seem like a big charade...just another fun game.  But overall, we don't talk about Santa a whole lot and we don't use it as a way to get our kids to behave, because hey...they should be behaving regardless! ;)  But we do make sure to discuss Baby Jesus a lot around Christmas and we always explain to our kids that Christmas is a time to celebrate his birth and to rejoice in "peace on earth, good will toward men."
Happy Holidays to all!

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Pumpkin Patch Field Trip (includes FREE educational worksheet "Pumpkin Investigation Report")

     Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch was adventurous this year.  I say "adventurous" because we had a very giddy daddy, an energetic 4 year old, a rambunctious 2 year old, and a VERY pregnant mommy.  It was fun, but when we arrived home I was extremely ready for a nap.  There was so much to do and see!

     It has been our tradition the past few years to go to Tanaka Farms.  It is the largest pumpkin patch in all of Orange County and they have so many activities!

     *Wagon Rides
   
     *Kids Tractor Course
   
     *Carnival Games
   
     *Pumpkin Cannon (our favorite!)

     *Corn Maze
(The corn maze was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be.  Marley was excited about "exploring" the maze.  We split up into two groups (Me and Dylan, Marley and daddy) to see who could arrive at the center of the maze first.  Dylan and I got there first so I was happy to catch Marley's face on camera when she found the center.  She was so happy to have completed the maze.  On the way out she explained to me that she found her way through the maze by looking at footprints in the dirt and trying to follow our tracks.  Um, brilliant!  I was very proud of her tracking skills. ;)


   



     *Pick Your Own Pumpkin
(We picked out a family pumpkin to carve and the girls each got to pick a small pumpkin to decorate.  I made sure to take pictures of the pumpkin's weight to help complete the pumpkin worksheet later at home.)

     I have attached my FREE printable worksheet to enhance the pumpkin picking experience and add some educational value.  I call it the Pumpkin Investigation Report. 

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Happy Chinese New Year

I did a brief explanation of Chinese New Year with M today. We then read Sam and the Lucky Money. A very sweet book about a boy who discovers how to be selfless.  It is a beautiful story and perfect for preschoolers.














RED ENVELOPE - We then made our own red envelope by cutting out a piece of red paper in this shape. I then drew the Chinese lucky fortune symbol on it and gave M some glue and sparkly decorations to use.  I love these kind of art projects that exercise fine motor skills and also cause her to be focused and quiet for a long while.  She was very excited to get her own dollar bill in her red envelope to spend however she wants. Dollar Store, here we come!


YEAR OF THE HORSE - I also informed M that this year is considered the year of the horse.  She enjoys doing Do-A-Dot pictures, so I printed out a horse outline and allowed her to color it with dots.

Here are two other art projects I thought were cute, but I didn't get around to preparing.

LUCKY HANGING

CHINESE DRUMS

I like using the current season or holidays to create preschool activities. It's much easier than actually being creative. Haha. ;)

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Catching Up #5: What Happened In December?

     The holidays were crazy and fun and full of learning opportunities. ;) Of course due to vacations, and family gatherings, I fell way behind on posts but the educating continued!

1ST GROUP CRAFT & ACTIVITY
     Some friends from our church met us at a local park and I prepared a craft for the kids to make paper christmas tree ornaments.

      PAPER ORNAMENTS - Here are examples of the two ornaments we made.

Paper Ornament #1

Super easy and can be fun for any age.

Paper Ornament #2

     SNOWBALL FIGHT - After the craft, I lead the kids in a snowball fight (Southern California style). I rolled up several white socks into balls and gave each team a bag of the "snowballs." All the kids had a blast! There was so much laughing and running, it was very memorable. I highly recommend this activity for the holidays.

SPIRITUAL EDUCATION
     Later in the month, my brother was able to go through the LDS temple.  This is a very big deal in our faith.  Being worthy of going into the temple is a wonderful milestone and I was very emotional and proud of my brother.  This turned into a field trip for my girls.  I believe it is very important for children to have experiences and lessons regarding religion and/or faith.  I am certain that the human mind has a part that is stimulated solely from spiritual experiences. This was a perfect opportunity to explain the temple a little more to M.  She was very excited for her uncle to enter, because she is always telling me she wants to grow up and get married in the temple "like mommy."  The best and most effective way of teaching children is to lead by example.  M has so many wonderfully righteous family members who are great examples.  Since the temple was a very special day, I helped M get dressed up for the occasion.  She was so excited to wear a new dress she had been saving for a special occasion.  These pictures don't do the cuteness justice! She was very proud of her big girl dress.

A LESSON ON COURAGE
     We took M ice skating for the first time! I have been looking forward to this day since she was born.  I love ice skating and hope she enjoys it also.  When we first arrived and M saw the ice, she refused to go on the ice. She was very scared and said she wanted to go home.  My husband talked her into putting on her skates and just standing on them.  We told her that she didn't have to go on the ice but that we would give her a treat if she did.  Yes, we are incentive based sometimes, and I see nothing wrong with it.  The world itself is incentive based.  The treat peaked her interest and she walked over to the ice.  When she got to the entrance to the ice, she started to back away and refused again.  At that point, daddy pulled her out on the ice and hugged her to calm her down.  He assured her that we were both so proud that she was on the ice even though she was scared.  Little pep talk after another, she became more comfortable being there.  Baby steps, baby steps.  By the end of the session, she was smiling, laughing, and skating on her own holding onto the wall. I was so glad we pushed her a bit beyond her comfort level.  I was thinking if we had left when she refused to skate, she would not have learned how to face her fears, and she would not have realized how much she liked ice skating.  Pushing your limits can result in great accomplishments and epiphanies.

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