Fun with Words!

My kids love to read and write! We even journaled about Spring Break and write small entries daily. I think this is something that the kids will enjoy looking at in the future. I'm always looking for fun and new ways to learn words and such, but I also like to include my little guy! I recently came across a fun word game What's Gnu and it's a great game for the big kids, but I wanted to adapt it for the youngest. I printed out some alphabet sheets and grabbed my magnet set from TARGET. His favorite part is sliding the letters out on the What's Gnu game, so he slides and then puts a magnet on the matching lower case letter. It's a great way for him to keep the Upper Case and Lower Case letters fresh in his mind! I love it!

I love to use games in ways other than what they were intended for, it's a way of getting more bang for your buck! Here we are using classic Boggle in a fun way. I shake it up and make a list of words that they can then find. It's like a big word search, since they have the list. Once they have familiarized themselves with the grid in that way, they then can move the letters around 1 at a time to create new words! It's basic, but they are learning and best of all, we are all doing it together!!

Things I Am Loving Right Now....

With 3 young kids (ages 6,5,3) in my house, I am falling in love with things constantly! The latest are educational and so much fun! As you have read we are very into our Nature Table ! We love going on nature walks and checking out new and fun stuff from the great outdoors. With Spring coming we are ready for our leaf hunting to begin and (1) FANDEX Family Field Guides has helped us GREATLY with their deck on TREES! Check them out to see how cool it is to find a leaf and just fan through the pages to match it up!! LOVE!

(2) TARGET has their new Summer season Dollar Spot out and they have AWESOME little magnifying glasses! Perfect for tiny hands! Our larger one is from a nearby teacher store and it's by far our favorite, but the smaller ones are perfect for taking out into the field and popping in a pocket!

(3) We love informational books that are written for kids, our favorites of the moment are both from Scholastic, I love buying from them and helping out the classroom! Colorful Leaves a Science and Vocabulary Reader is great for younger kids and gives a brief intro on the topic, while Why Do Leaves Change Color? is an EXCELLENT in-depth book that really captures their attention with great photos! Can you tell we love books?

(4) Next, I am IN LOVE with 103 questions children ask about Right and Wrong with answers from the bible. A great reference when kids ask you a question that even YOU have to think of an answer for! Finally, we are at the Time and Money stage in school and Scholastic has an AWESOME pocket chart for counting money with a Piggy Bank in the background! The kids LOVE that one! We play it with a deck of money cards also from a Teacher Store.

This one needed it's own shout out, because my kids AND husband and I AND Grandpa and Nana LOVE to play with these! They are Magna Tiles and easily the coolest toy on the market now! They have had them for 2 months now and they still get played with EVERY DAY! Check them out and TRY not to get addicted!!