Yesterday Little Man set up Monopoly, begging everyone in the family to join him. It is a game that I loved as a child. As a parent, I tolerate it. Crazy how things change like that. But, I knew it was important to my young son. Even though it wasn't always pretty, I was thankful that I grasped the moment. As we played I recognized the ...
Learning
NEW 2 Year Curriculum, 2nd Edition
In 2011 the 2 Year Curriculum was added to the ABCJesusLovesMe website. It has guided 1000's of families and teachers in being intentional with the toddlers in their lives. But, there comes a time when all must be remodeled. Today I am sharing the details with you. And you are going to love the ...
Because They Are Only Little Once
The above image is filled with so much "good." A little girl learning with bubbles. Priceless. She is learning about gravity. She is learning about size. She is learning about breath control. She is learning about cause and effect. She is strengthening her fine motor skills as she holds the bubbles and ...
Crossing the Midline and Why It’s Important
Hang around an Occupational Therapist or preschool teacher for a while and you will hear them say something about the midline. In our case, the therapist said, "Bubs is unable to cross the midline." I assumed this was bad, but I didn't know why or how to help the problem. Crossing the Midline Here is a definition of crossing the midline from ...
Praying Scriptures When Your Children Have Tests
Tests are an understood part of our children's lives. Whether it is a spelling test in the 1st Grade, the ACT/SAT in high school, or the GRE to get into graduate school, our children are frequently taking exams to test their understanding and knowledge. Because of the very nature of the event, tests create varying levels of anxiety in our ...
When Your Child Refuses to Sit and Learn
For the past few weeks, I have seen several questions concerning children who don't want to sit for learning time. I often hear two sides to this issue. Those who believe that toddlers and preschoolers can't sit. Forcing a young child to sit is actually harmful. And, those who believe children must sit for long periods of learning because ...
Creating a Preschool Notebook
"What do I do with all the papers?" This is a common question that I hear from ABCJLM users. So many precious art pieces and first handwriting worksheets that it can get overwhelming. Here is a post that I wrote several years back and a link to cute notebook coverpages for each curriculum. With four littles in our home, our refrigerator is ...
Teaching a Child to Read: Is Your Child Ready?
Transitioning from the child being read to, to the child doing the reading can be a stressful time. But in actuality, it doesn't have to be. More importantly...it shouldn't be. This should be a smooth transition. (Read How to Grow a Reader) For me, this has become one of my favorite developments in our children's lives. There is nothing ...
Hop Scotch and Learning
Today we are going to take a break from our Vacation Tips blog series and revisit a post from a while back. Since the temperatures dropped a little last week, we took our learning outside. In creating our own hopscotch game, we combined drawing (fine motor), jumping (gross motor), numbers, and shapes! And...the kids didn't even realize they ...
How to Make File Folder Games
Before ABCJLM was even a thought in my mind, I created File Folder Games for Bubs. If you are not familiar with these, File Folder Games are inexpensive, easy to store activities that are great for teaching fundamental concepts to kiddos. The other day I pulled out some for Peanut and he really enjoyed them. I ...