Easy Peasy Chicka Chicka Felt Board

I just love this project. I made this for my preschool class when we introduced the alphabet in the beginning of the year.  Hands on learning is not only fun but effective so this easy, peasy craft will have your preschooler wanting to read along with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , practice letter recoognition and other fun phonemic awareness games that you can think of with this fun, felt board! 

Here's all you and need and what to do!

1.  Buy or recyle a canvas or thick cardboard piece at least the size of a sheet of paper or larger.

2.  Cover the canvas with coordinating or similiar fabric as the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom cover.

3. Using free hand I drew the tree trunk on brown felt and drew each palm branch and extra grass on the green felt.  I then cut the pieces out and hot glued them on to the canvas.

4.  Lastly, I found letter stickers I already had in my crafting kit and covered them in contact paper and cut them out.  Stick a piece of velcro on to the back of each one so they can stick to the coconut tree.

5.  Let your child stick on the letters as you read!  You could also lay the letters out flat and work on phonemic awareness skills with your preschooler.  Phonemic awareness skills are the most important skill we can give to our preschooler before they enter school and need to be in place for before reading can occur.   As the letters are infront of your preschooler, make a letter sound and have your preschooler add the correct letter to the tree.     Another variation as your preschooler becomes more proficient is to say, "add the letter that makes the sound that begins the word cat" or " what letter makes the sound that ends the word man".   There are so many hands on learning activities to do with this easy, peasy Chicka Chicka Felt Board!  Enjoy!


linking up with

Hybrid School

I was reading over women Living Well and she has been doing a series on homeschooling. I have to say that the online homeschooling community has really been an encouragement to me since I have started homeschooling 4 years ago. Without the honesty and suggestions of other moms sharing their day and ideas, I would of felt isolated. What I love most about homeschooling is the freedom to choose what works best for educating our children. In the past few years what works for us has changed and evolved into being part of a hybrid school.

What is a hybrid School? A hybrid school is a bricks and mortar school that my girls attend on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then on Tuesday and Thursday they are homeschooled by me using the lesson plan their teacher has created. There are many benefits for me to this model and it has worked beautifully for our family. Some of the benefits include:

• Complete Curriculum and lesson plans, no planning
• Grade level friends and participation in social events with like minded families
• Families that share the same values
• small class size
• Classical and christian education with a high value on moral training
• Still being the main teacher/guidance in my child's life
• electives including violin/art/choir/latin/PE/archery/golf/guitar/keyboard
• Even though they homeschooled 2 times a week they are considered by the stat to be in a fulltime, private school.
• Being accountable to finish the work on time ( I need this, LOL)
• More time to play with siblings rather than just friends, promoting their sibling relationship

It has just been amazing for me and our family. I had a my third little girl the same time we started homeschooling and I struggled alot with creating lessons and being able to keep my girls on task and keeping a baby entertained. For this season of my life, I feel my girls are getting the benefits of homeschooling as well as amazing socialization of like minded families. The one challenge is it is private so there is tuition. I am actually a teacher by trade and was given the opportunity to start the preschool program at their school, so I am able to bring my youngest and work as the preschool teacher at the school on Monday and Wednesday. This covers the cost of the tuition for my other two girls.
What I love about this school is that it is just another amazing option to school our children. We do not have to accept the options that are offered to us as parents. We can choose the training of our children and grow our families the way we wish and feel lead. Right now this hybrid shcool is working so well for our family and our children are blooming. At each season of my life I will reevaluate what will work best for my family and make the best decision I can at that time.

My decision to homeschool

I began homeschooling 4 years ago. The homeschooling adventure has changed my family to the core and I love it. When we made the decision to homeschool non of my friends were homeschooling, I wasn't sure what to do, where to go for help, but I knew I needed to do it. I felt such a tug in my soul to keep them home to educate that I didn't care what anyone thought.

As a good girl, who USE to enjoy pleasing the people around me, deciding to homeschool even though those around me thought it was strange was the best thing I ever did, for a few reasons.

First, homeschooling has allowed me to be the guide in my children's moral training and incourage the enjoyment of school.

But another unexpected blessing of deciding to homeschool was the power it gave me to stop caring about what anyone else was thinking. I felt convicted that I was making the best decision for my family and the fact that I had no support but still wanted it so badly, only made me more certain.

Over the years I have made many other decisions to help support and encourage our family and not let my decisions be swayed by what anyone else is doing. Homeschooling is a blessing and joy in our family! Today our homeschooling looks a little different as we belong to a hybrid school which has actual school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and homeschool on Tuesday and Thursday. The structure and moral training of the school helps this creative, non structured mom stay on task but also the extra days of staying home to school and being blessed to have more time with these amazing giggly girls.

What made you begin your homeschooling adventure?