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REVIEW – The Ark, the Reed, and the Fire Cloud
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Our nine year-old son Riley gives an audio review of The Ark, the Reed, and the Fire Cloud (The Amazing Tales of Max and Liz, Book One)
What was the book about?
What was your favorite character and why?
What was your favorite part of the book?
Did the book make the account of Noah and the flood more “real” to you?
How?
Did you learn any truths about God?
Would you recommend for your friends to read this book?
How many stars do you give this book?
Sherry goes on to share tips for reading a long chapter book to your kids. One tip Sherry gives is for you to have something for your kids to do with their hands. Sherry uses fidgets. In a blog post titled Juggling a Houseful with Learning Stations Sherry shares a picture of what fidgets look like.
Other items mentioned:
Teach Them Diligently Home School Convention
Riley’s Stop Motion Video:
Gluten Free Playdough
Play Doh© has not been an activity that has been used hardly at all in our home since having a four year old that is allergic to wheat and breaks out in severe skin rashes. If I were completely honest, I don’t care for the mess either! I have tried “Moon Sand” which is even messier- yikes! My children could really use the sensory exposure to Playdough. More than one of my boys wrinkle their noses at the squishy texture (probably partly because of their lack of exposure to it).
Then it occurred to me. With the gluten free craze, I wondered if there is any such thing as gluten free playdough, and better yet, couldn’t I make some with rice flour instead of wheat flour? You’ve gotta love the Internet- sure enough a quick search turned up more than one variety of wheat free playdough.
We tried two different recipes, one with common pantry ingredients and another recipe with rice flour (which can be found at many grocery stores in the speciality foods section). My children and I overwhelmingly preferred the rice flour recipe! It had the texture of the regular playdough whereas the all corn starch batch was much firmer and drier. The dough was pretty easy to make; I encourage you to give one of these recipes a try! 
Our favorite gluten free recipe using rice flour (Blue in photo)
I did kneed anything into the blue playdough recipe because it was the right consistency when I took it out of the pan. The more we played with it the stickier it got. I kneaded in about 1.2 cup of flour/corn starch mixture two weeks after I made the playdough. It blended just fine.If you over do it you can always add a few drops of water.
Gluten free recipe using more common household ingredients (Green in photo)
One last discovery….
All my years of working with children, and I have only recently discovered “Playdough Mats”! They are simple pictures that you print out and laminate (or cover with clear Contact Paper available at Walmart). I like to use them as guides so that when the young ones say “What do I do?” I have an answer AND a way to extend their attention! The frying pan mat was my boys’ favorite one. Check out the following site for some cute Playdough Mats or create your own!
http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-bag-swap-day-5-playdough-mats_05.html
Busy Bag Swap Loot
I have had the opportunity to participate in something called Busy Bag Swap this past month. I must admit that this term was foreign to me and I’m still learning! I have written in a previous blog post about Learning Stations and these Busy Bags will work VERY WELL with the stations!
So what’s a Busy Bag Swap? A group of ladies each choose an activity to make that would fit a predetermined age group. The activities either teach an academic skill (like ABC’s or counting/number matching), fine motor development (like tracing or Pincher grasp by using tongs), or are visually entertaining (like I Spy or discovery type things). These activities are designed to keep the little ones “busy” and each one is put into a zip bag making it easy to grab one and go–thus the name Busy Bags! The key is that each mom makes enough of THE SAME ACTIVITY for each lady participating.
Our group had 18 ladies and the age range of 2-3 year olds was chosen. We created a sign up sheet to ensure there weren’t any duplicate activities. I checked out several idea sights on the Internet and chose the “Discovery Bottles” as my activity (after checking to be sure I could find AquaPods water bottles!) Because a picture is worth a thousand words, check out the following websites to get a better understanding of the types of activities.
“Discovery Bottles”
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-age/toddler-crafts/discovery-bottles-675306/
http://secondstorywindow.typepad.com/home/2011/10/toddler-time-busy-bag-series-part-2.html
http://therigneys.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/toddler-busy-bag-swap/
Check out this website for instructions & pictures of homemade Geoboards- used with 2-7 year olds:
http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-bag-swap-day-7-geoboards.html?m=1
http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/p/our-busy-bag-swap.html?m=1
Here are some items that we received in our Busy Bags with a few comments and suggestions based on our experiences.
- Gel Bag and Marble Maze
Gel bag and Marble Maze – The gel bag is appropriate for 4-5 year-olds. The gel bags need to be tapped with clear packaging tape. The marble maze is great to attach to a stroller for toddlers. It is a marble sown in between two pieces of cloth with stich lines added to create a maze to move the marble through. I even bought one as a birthday present for a 1 year old. Our son Caden’s occupational therapist (OT) went bannas over the marble maze and plans to use it as a finger warm-up exercise with her patients.
Popsicle Stick Puzzle and Pom-Pom Stuff It In – The popsicle stick puzzle can be covered with clear packaging tape to make it more durable. This one was a challenge for a 4 1/2 year old. The Pom-Pom stuff it in is another finger strengthening exercise tool. I’ve used it with all ages from toddler (2 yrs) and up.
Color Match Pins – The Color Match Pins are paint sample strips from your local home improvement store or Walmart. The older ages (4 yrs +) had fun with this one. The pins were a little too difficult to squeeze for our little 2 year old.
Letter and Number Match – The number match used a clear velcro dot in the center of each number tile. That made it very easy for a toddler to grasp the number tile from any angle.
Eye Spy and Egg Crate Pom-Pom Sort – Both of these items have been enjoyable for all ages. I like the compact nature and transportability of the eye spy. Toddlers will grow into the use of the tongs with the Pom-Pom sort. Right now he enjoys putting the Pom-Poms in the holes with his fingers. (over and over and over again)
Chalk Blocks – I love the creativity of this item for preschoolers. These are simply square blocks of wood painted with chalkboard paint. I would recommend that the blocks be a little larger for the younger ages and ensure that all sides are sanded smooth before painting.
Magnetic Pom-Pom – This is very entertaining for my toddler. The Pom-Poms have magnets hot-glued to them. Our next chore is to find a way to make this one portable without having to carry a cookie sheet in the diaper bag. Please post your ideas in the comments below. Here are a couple of links to download two more Pom-Pom mats. You will need Adobe Reader to view them.
Pasta Sort – My toddler spent the better part of an hour filling and dumping the cups. He tried to string the pasta by himself but required some assistance. I will try using a pipe cleaner next time.
Con-Tact Paper – I used Con-Tact paper to laminate some of the paper items to increase durability.
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