Great Supplies at Dollar Tree

I've always loved shopping the Dollar Tree for school supplies - even when I taught in a preschool, before my children.

My son, just turned 4, has been using Sonbeams since last summer, and is already way past basic number recognition.

Several months ago he began showing an interest in math, wanting to learn addition. So of course, when he saw this (among other things...) while at Dollar Tree with me a few weeks ago, this poster was one thing 'he HAD to have' - and into the buggy he was putting it!

Numbers 1 through 12 - Addition Chart $1!!

It went back on the shelf, only for me to return later and snatch it up for his birthday!

While he's not ready for the whole chart, he has a pretty good understanding of "1 +" a number is one more number.

So this chart will be wonderful to help him learn the 2's and 3's this school year!

Numbers 1-20

Basic recognition of matching the number and seeing visually how many it is.

(I didn't realize when I bought it that 17 was fairies, but since they have no idea what fairies are, we just won't make them the 'magical' thing the world makes them to be.)

This will be great for teaching my 2 year old how to count up to 20 - and also recognize numbers that high.

Here's a close up of some other great finds....

Die Cut letters, great for the Main Board (see previous post)

Name cards - Though there's only 2 real students here, it's still fun for them to see their name written out, plus when we spell it each time we see it, they learn to spell their names quickly!

And the last items being cute borders. These will make cute decorations for either a posterboard or the trifold board you'll see in the next picture that I snagged once again, for $1!

I picked out an animal one and transportation theme, for when we do theme studies on these.

This trifold board isn't as big as the main one I have pictured in a previous post, but it's still a good size, and even better for $1 vs. the $4+ that I paid for the other one at WalMart.

Happy Shopping - and remember, schooling CAN be inexpensive! You don't even have to have these items, but I'll admit - it's fun and cute for Mommy!

Are you seeing the relations??

Greetings parents!

As I'm giving you a small sneak peak into Sonbeams preschool guides, I hope you're beginning to see how God's Word is intertwined so much thoughout all the lessons.

The "A" isn't a lesson by itself, but when you share the Scripture verse for it, you also are able to share about the number "0" and the color "red".

When you tell the story of "A"dam, your child will see how Adam and Eve were supposed to eat "0" fruits. God doesn't allow us 1 sin, or 5 sins - He wants to have us sin no more!

(See number sampler for song information)

This isn't just a simple ABC, 123 guide, but ties God's Word in - in so many ways!

I'd love to hear feedback from you!
Candace

Week 1 - ABC's Sampler

*Letter A

How to sign the letter A:

Today, you’ll introduce what the letter looks like and sounds like.

“A, a” - “aah”, “Adam” and “apple”

Ask your child what else might start with the “aah, or A” sound. You might have to prompt them at first, but look around the room or take a walk through your home to see what you can find.

*Scripture relation - Romans 3:23 "For All have sinned and come short of the glory of God".

Also - "A"dam and Eve. Just as "A" is the first letter, Adam was the first human God made, and the first sin (or wrong thing) mankind did was to eat the forbidden fruit - the "apple".

Take time to read both Scripture passages with your little one, and discuss what they mean in our lives today.

We are all guilty of sin, Romans 3:23 tells us that. But Jesus came and died for our sins, taking them away. This is where you tie in the number of the week - 0. We have "0" sins before God when we ask Jesus to forgive and save us.

...Another opportunity to sing the "0" song, "Rolled Away".

*Letter Craft
Begin by taking either construction paper or blank cardstock and beginning a book about the alphabet. Using a three ring hole puncher, cut holes and insert in plastic binder.

Either print the “A, a” at the top using your printer, or draw them with markers. (Again, allow your preschooler to be involved in making the book!)

Trace the capital and lowercase letters with your fingers – introducing how each letter is shaped, before learning to write them.

Even when I taught in a preschool, this method of 'writing' was used with young students before ever putting a crayon in their hand! They can see it, feel it, learn the shape -all this is necessary before they can learn to write it.

Week 1 - 123's Sampler

*Number - 0 (zero)

We begin by reading Genesis 1:1-2.

In the beginning, God created – that meant He made the heaven and earth. There wasn’t anything there before – no sun or moon, no light, no ground, no trees, no people – it was just God.

Children will be able to better grasp this concept by visual props. Illustrate this by drawing two pictures. One picture draw ‘God’, and the on the other one, draw the earth filled with trees, grass, people, etc. Ask your child which one shows “zero” things.

Pick up various toys or other items around your house, and group them in piles of 1, 2, or 3 (or more) items on a paper plate. Leave one plate empty.

The object of the game is to help your child visually see and make the connection that zero means nothing/ empty. Ask them to point to which plate has zero.

Of course this seems so elementary, but isn't that exactly what your preschooler is? (smiles) This will be huge to them, especially if they are younger. Be sure to give LOTS of praise when they are successful.

Play as many times as they'd like, and even give them a chance to fill up the plates - then let you be the 'child' and guess which one has zero. Don't be embarrassed to get on their level - they'll learn and have a blast with you at the same time!


*Number craft – Do this craft together!

Cut either a 10” x 12” heavy cardstock (these can be found at dollar stores) in half or posterboard to a 5” x 12” size.

Draw bubble letters, spelling out the word “ZERO”, then draw a bubble number “0”.

Help or assist your child in putting glue inside of the bubble letters/ number.

Place a small amount of glitter in a bowl, or use glitter shakers – and have your child sprinkle glitter over the glue.

Allow these to dry overnight.

For the rest of the week, you will reference this card each day. The sparkles will catch your preschooler’s attention, and the texture will add extra interest to teaching them what the word and number looks like.

Practice tracing the letters as you spell them each day, and the number as you say it. This hand/ eye coordination will provide a deeper learning of the numbers.

*Song - Rolled Away (Every burden of my heart rolled away... every sin, had to go - leaving "0"!)

This familiar children's song works perfecting with "A" and "0". We all have sinned, "0" people are sinless except the Lord Jesus Christ.

"A" for All. "0" for no sins are left after the crimson flow has washed us.

... See another relation for this week? Crimson flow - "Red"!

Jesus had to shed his blood on the cross as payment for our sins. Don't shirk from sharing God's truths to your children. Teach them that God isn't about us all dying in our sins, but out of Love, He gave His only Son to die in our place! He loves us so much!

It also teaches our children how sin isn't something that God takes lightly. How can we teach our children the fear of the Lord, if they never see what needs to be feared?

Only the wicked have need to fear, the righteous are in the Arms of Christ!

Week 1 Overview

We begin at the beginning.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2

Number – Zero (0)
Letter – A, a
Color – Red
Scripture – Genesis 1:1-2, Romans 3:23
Songs – Rolled Away, Scripture Song – Romans 3:23
Sign Language – A, zero, red

Tomorrow I'll share the first day's number lesson guide!

Daily Routine

Bible/ Prayer Time

Each morning, begin school together in the floor reading a Scripture passage. In our home, this was a chapter in Psalms. Although little ones might not understand, their souls will begin to soak in the Lord’s Word.

If you waited until they understood, they’d be teenagers or older before they heard the Word of God! Begin young and they’ll grasp quickly as the Spirit speaks to their hearts.

When I began doing this, my ‘just turned 3 year old’ would stop me every other verse practically asking what it meant. If your child does the same, take the time to stop and share with them.

Feel unprepared for this?? Pre-read the section the night before, and ask the Lord to show you what He’s saying in that passage. The Lord will give you the answers for your children! As you finish reading, invite your family to circle together and begin your school day with prayer.

Board Time

My Board

I traced scrapbook die cuts (the card left AFTER you punch out the die cut) to make the weather cards and letters for the words. If you notice, I did each day according to the colors of the rainbow.

Begin by removing the prior ‘day’, and placing all the days together.

Each day, ask your child how many days are in a week. As much as you’d like to help them, give them plenty of time to think and answer themselves. If they are right, praise them!! If they are wrong, simply encourage them to “count them with me and let’s see how many there are!”

Point to each day as you say the name. Sing the days of the week to the tune of “Merrily We Roll Along”, again, pointing to the correct day as you sing them.

-----
Days of the Week Song – "There are 7 days in a week, in a week, in a week, There are 7 days in a week, and I can say them all. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday is the last day – and I can say them all!"
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Ask your child what day yesterday was, and point to it on the chart. Ask them what day they think today might be.

If they seem unsure, silently point to the ‘next’ day after yesterday (today), and see if they recognize it by “reading”. If they still are unsure, slowly begin to sound it out – allowing them to finish if they suddenly remember, or you complete it and ask them to say it with you.

BE SURE to never criticize your child for wrong answers!! Instead, gently correct them and explain what is right, and how you can tell what is right.

If you work WITH them, they will love school and succeed. But if they feel they can never get an answer right and will always be scolded or looked down upon, they will lose interest and give up altogether.

Review “yesterday was”, “today is”, and “tomorrow will be”.

Next, move onto the weather for the day. Look out the window and ask your child to “be the weatherman” and tell you what the weather looks like for the day. Keep it simple – sunny, cloudy, windy, storms, and snow.

Colors on the Board –
Dollar Tree had a cute border last year that had the basic colors. I cut them out separately and stuck them onto colored card stock of the same color.

Review the color of the week each day – saying the name, asking your child to point to the color on the board, and then spell it together.

For our color song, we sing the “Colors of the Rainbow” song off of Signing Time (sign language for children). You can either watch Signing Time on public TV (Sat. AM), or order the DVDs on their website – http://www.signingtime.org/.

As with any outside program, always be sure to supervise content. They sometimes have music or dancing on Signing Time that we ourselves turn off in our home, especially the newer episodes.

Check out Sign Language cards we offer on the sidebar.

If you'll notice, there's a large open section in the center of the board. This is where I would stick each week's Bible verse, or maybe if you had a theme that week, stick something up there.

Letter/ Number of the week –
Say the letter name of the week, point to and trace it with your finger on the board as you sound it out. Invite your child to trace the letter too!

Review ‘letter’ verse of the week on Scripture verse chart. (Again, easy and inexpensive to make WITH your child - see more info further down post.)

Sing ‘letter’ Bible verse song of the week. (Available SOON!! If not on complete CD, then maybe I can at least get the first few loaded online for you to hear.)

And finally, review number of the week. Pointing to it, and then playing a quick version of “find 2 red things in the room”. This allows your child to visually see the number in reality, as well as recognize the color of the week again. After board time, move over to the calendar…

Calendar Time

My Calendar

Begin by reviewing the current month. To begin with (for 4 or under), I wouldn’t worry about the whole year at this point, just focus on each month as they come.

Next, ask them again what day it is – referring back to the board if necessary. Then together find and point it out on the calendar.

Count all of the days past in the month, pointing and saying each number as you count aloud together. This is important especially if you have younger ones, as they will listen to you and eventually pick up on the numbers themselves.

When you get to the current day (this is still blank on the calendar), ask them what number comes next – which number is ‘today’. Prompt them only after they’ve had time to try themselves.

Allow them to stick up the current day after they know which number it is. You’ve now completed your daily routine! This is important to stick to closely each morning – keeping letters, numbers, months, days, etc… fresh on their minds each day!

Scripture Verse Time

My Chart

Here I measured out enough spaces for all 26 letters and verses, along with coloring in a little at the top for my children to be attracted to.

For each letter, I used scrapbook stickers – and use marker to write the verse each week with my children.

Each morning, go to the chart and point/ say each letter and verse together that you’ve learned.

Use either Sonbeams Music CD to sing along with the verses available soon at http://www.sonbeams.com/, or create your own music!

Alright, that's the morning routine

FYI - My boards were put together using Velcro tape that I cut according to size (I found this at Wal-Mart, but believe Dollar Tree might have it??)

I used 3M Adhesive Command Strips for hanging my calendar and Bible verse chart. I cleaned the wall down with vinegar first, then after that dried, stuck the clear sticky part to the wall.

After that 'cured', I attached the hooks. It's been great for hanging lightweight things in our school room - and it won't leave a bad spot on the wall when I remove it!

Preparing For School

Some of the activities mentioned might call for items you don’t have. Be creative! Many of my items I found at thrift stores (an easel/ chalkboard), yard sales (lots of ‘school’ books for young ones), or my children received for gifts (Magna Doodles, Aqua Doodles).

Instead of traditional presents, my oldest was THRILLED to receive ‘school’ stuff for his birthday when he turned 3. We gave him a backpack loaded with crayons, paper, markers, glue, scissors, etc…

For some items, I went to the local Dollar Tree. Poster board makes a great calendar, and they usually have teacher’s products that you can use to make the ‘days’ that you’ll attach on your calendar. (I’ll provide pictures of how I made things.)

That’s also where I picked up many workbooks. Books aren’t generally recommended for learning this early on, but my children LOVE to do them – so we do. They definitely are NOT necessary.

Soon you’ll pick up on a few ways to be creative yourself – using what you already have around your home to learn with! (Let us know about them!)


What I bought to get started:
Colored baskets from the Dollar Tree to separate each child’s books
Construction paper
Paint (found in clearance at Wal-Mart – check the ends of the aisles in the craft department)
Paintbrushes
Large chalk (doesn’t break as easily)
Easel/ chalkboard at the thrift store
Desk and chairs (yard sale)
Large crayons
Plastic sleeves for pages (makes reusable worksheets)
Trifold display board
Glitter (Dollar Tree)

What I use from home:
Cotton balls
Pie pans (for paint)
Old t-shirts (smocks for painting)
Paper plates
Old cereal
Old flour
Popsicle sticks
Scrap paper

Weekly Categories

Numbers, Letters, Colors/ Shapes, Scriptures, Crafts, Music

On Mondays, we will introduce the letter, number, color, Bible verse, and song for that week.

Your child will learn each of these, but this just as importantly, they will learn to relate them to the Bible.

Each day, you’ll have a new activity to do with most of the 6 categories mentioned above. On the next day, we’ll first review the prior day(s), and then move forward to a new activity.

Most weeks will have a number song as well as a letter song. If you’re not familiar with children’s church songs, I would highly recommended going to the Christian bookstore or look on Ebay for a book of children’s songs.

One that I use a great deal is “Sing and Be Happy”.


Coming Soon: Each week will have a Scripture verse song. Sonbeams Bible Verse CD available SOON!! Prayerfully available mid-August, hold YOURS today!!

How Sonbeams Works

Sonbeams is designed to be used 5 days a week, approximately 1 to 2 hours each day. This time does NOT have to be all together, in fact, I’d suggest spreading it out a little with play time in between.

Young preschoolers need time to play and be creative, and don’t really need to be held to a strict school schedule.

That said, follow your child’s cues. My oldest, for instance, never wanted to stop school! Pray that the Lord would grant you insight to know what your child’s needs are.

With Sonbeams, the main focus isn’t learning the knowledge of the world, but learning of God and His ways. Everything you teach should in some way be linked back to a discussion about the Lord and how He relates to that particular thing.

Each week, you will have 6 categories of learning. Be creative, you don’t have to just do what is written here. If another idea comes to your mind, use it! This will make it more ‘Yours’, too!

I would encourage you do to your school together as a family. It’s such a blessing to have the older children working with their younger siblings – to watch as well!

This keeps them from the public school method of forming cliques within their age groups. By working together, the older learn to care for their younger siblings, and the younger learn to respect their older sibling(s). Teamwork and a close bond has been the result at my home!

A side note: as I began teaching my 3 year old, his 18-month-old sister would work along side us. She didn’t do the ‘work’, but quickly picked up on many things.

Introduction Letter for Sonbeams

Dear Parent,

Hello! I would first like to thank you for your interest in Sonbeams, a division of Heaven In Our Homes. I’m so excited about your desire to train your children up in the way of the Lord!

This preschool curriculum teaches your child academics, but its foundation is based on our Foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Son” for Jesus the Son, and sunbeams based on the children’s song “I’ll Be A Sunbeam For Him”.

As you begin ‘school’ with your child, make this a time of fun – a time of learning together with your child. No stress, no worries, no schedule. You’ll quickly see that your child is not only picking up on their colors, letters, and numbers – but is also learning AND learning to love their Creator and Savior!

Don’t be mislead that learning is just bookwork, but learn as you live life. So many opportunities are available each day in our lives – from cooking, laundry, cleaning, shopping. These offer math, color/ sorting skills, basic learning skills, reading, and so on….

You’ll find that Sonbeams doesn’t take the approach that many curriculums do – having ‘professional’ objectives and ‘proper’ wording. It’s not that I am not familiar with this, but because as a former preschool instructor with the State before – I see that it’s really not necessary. Believe it or not, your child will still learn!

You as a parent are perfectly capable to teach your child, without years of college training. You don’t have to understand the language of the experts. God made YOU the parent, YOU know your child better than anyone else. God will allow YOU to see which areas your child excels in and which need a little more encouragement.

You won’t find another curriculum quite like this one, but in my opinion that’s a good thing! Your child WILL learn, just like the other children, but you won’t have the ‘burden’ of learning.

This will be a time of fun fellowship together, children learning and parents encouraging their children and developing a unique bond with them.

Should questions or comments arise, please feel free to share them with us via e-mail at: Sonbeams@heaveninourhomes.com. Let’s get started!

Blessings,
Candace

The beginning!

Welcome to Sonbeams, Raising Up Sunbeams For Him! blog!!

For the beginning only, this blog will have public access - so you can see what Sonbeams is all about!

As a former preschool teacher and nanny working for years with young children - and now having my own - I have put together some of the "tricks of the trade", tips, and ideas for inexpensive learning for parents desiring to homeschool their own preschoolers on a budget.

Sonbeams curriculum guides this first year will be available online only. I'll be sharing lesson guides on a weekly basis - walking you through step by step how to teach your preschooler ABC's, 123's, Bible verses, songs, even sign language!

Songs the Lord has given me to teach my children scripture will be available separately on CD.

Also in the works (almost completed) is a chart to assist you in training your little ones in discipline. The "My Daily Duties" chart is a dry erase product for your fridge that's perfect for little hands.

These charts are designed to catch children's attention, with artwork they will LOVE!, and keep it simple in training your preschooler. 5 empty spots allow you to write in areas of encouragement your child needs.

For my children, I would love for them to dress themselves and make their beds - so these are 2 of the 5. Sometimes I've written in "Love One Another", or "Share Toys". Also great for potty training - first hand knowledge speaking here!

The chart is flexible as your needs of training change. To keep costs down at my home, we use stickers that I've found on clearance at Christian bookstores. Also, with a baby and toddler that love to put things in their mouths, I opted against magnets!

Again, a stay at home mom here knowing we have to be frugal, this fits the bill all around!

My children LOVE stickers, and I make a big deal each time they complete their chores and receive a sticker.

To put your name on the waiting list when these are finished, let me know at orders@heaveninourhomes.com. Price to be determined, but will be better than comparable!

As I desire to help my husband financially, I'm not here to take advantage of other moms. My main goal is not to make a killing at other's expense. I want to provide quality products that are lower priced than you can find them anywhere else!

To help you in following the Lord in training your children at home and being a Titus 2/ Proverbs 31 woman.

There are so many inexpensive, yet creative ways to teach children - ways that this blog will show you how to do!!

Subscriptions are $20 for 26 weeks - and will give you access to the blog here and "any and all" comments that other moms share from their homeschooler adventures!

Beginning in August, the doors to the blog will close and be available to subscribers only - so save your spot now by replying to sonbeams@heaveninourhomes.com.

Next week, I'll give you a preview of the first week's guide - so you'll know what you're getting. Bookmark the site and return again!

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