No Time For Flash Cards » Blissful Kids

Spring Fling Giveaway !

admin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Spring Fling Week is here! Don’t miss my review of Music Together as well as CD giveaway I am hosting over at Blissful Kids. I am happy I can pass on some of the fun I have every week with my son at our Music Together class to you with a copy their awesome Family Favorites CD !

So click on the button and enter !

Letter Of The Week ! P p !

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Penny P !

I was going to do President P for President’s Day but my son associates Obama with O and when we started talking about President he kept saying O , Obama. So I switched gears saved the cut out pictures of President Obama for another day and grabbed some pennies.

Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard, markers, glue, scissors and pennies!
Start by drawing a P on your cardboard.
Have your child decorate the P with markers or crayons, I would stay away from paint because you want the cardboard as dry as possible so it is strong for the pennies.
Add the glue. The more the better so this is a great time to let your child have free reign . I showed my son where to glue then counted to 5 while he squeezed to get big dollops.
Add your pennies. We had a little chat about who that is on the penny, and counted them. Let dry.
Cut out the P .

Book!

There are a lot of President’s Day books out there but most are boring and lifeless, which bothers the historian in me, there are so many exciting things to teach about history but luckily I found this one.

“President’s Day” by Anne Rockwell is a perfect introduction to presidents, some of their major accomplishments and some major points in American history. The story follows a class putting on a play and we learn about some of the most significant presidents as the children do. Very cute and age appropriate for older preschoolers.

Raising Readers!

Don’t miss my weekly contribution to Blissful Kids! This week I put the glue away and scissors down to help parents find resources about how to raise readers right from the get go!

Letter of The Week L l !

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Ladder L !

Last night at dinner I asked my son what letter we should do tomorrow, he immediately said L. So I was thinking of more figurative things like love for valentine’s day but that’s hard for little guys to understand. My husband put down his fork and said “Ladder” well this morning at church, my son pointed at a ladder and remembering the conversation at dinner said ” Ladder L !” So here it is !

Gather your materials. You will need 3 pieces of construction paper, some markers scissors and glue.
Start by giving your child a piece of construction paper to draw on. Older children can draw flames, or a fire engine or perhaps a construction site. Little ones can just explore with markers. My son drew legs. Don’t ask- another recent obsession.
While they color, draw a large L with the red paper. Add a some legs on either end of the L.
Cut some rungs out of the black paper.
Cut the L out and glue it on the drawing when your child is ready. For us that was about 30 minutes after he finished drawing since he needed a break to play with is firetrucks. This is normal, I just go with it, he always comes back sooner or later.
Add the glue to the L for the ladder.
Add the rungs.
Let dry!

Song!

I’m a big red firetruck, firetruck, fire truck!
I’m a big red firetruck , I come to the rescue!

My lights flash on and off, on and off on and off!
My lights flash on and off to say I’m on the way!

My ladders stretch way up high, way up high, way up high!
My ladders stretch way up high, up to the sky!

My hoses spray the water out, water out, water out!
My hoses spray the water out , until the fire’s gone!

Books!

“The Little Fire Engine” by Lois Lenski is a simple little book about a fire engine that goes to put out fires. Nothing special but every time my son sees it at the library he won’t let it go. In 6 months we’ve taken it out 4 times. I think the bright retro illustrations ( it was originally published in the early 60′s) and the simple text is what makes it so appealing.

” Fire Engines” by Anne Rockwell is the current favorite at our house. I found it at a thrift store for twenty five cents and I am definitely getting much more than my moneys worth! It’s a cute book with easy text and cute cartoon dalmatians as fire fighters. I particularly love that there is a fire boat in the book since we often see those around here. Cute book for fire engine lovers!

Be Still My Heart !

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Katherine from Katherine D Photography was kind enough to share an adorable Valentine’s craft ! If you have a chance and want to see some amazing pictures check out her photo blog, I wish I was closer to her so she could take some pictures of my little man!

Take wax paper, a marker, glue, water and colored tissue paper (red, pink and white).

Mix equal parts glue and water on a paper plate.

Then tear up small pieces of tissue paper.

On the wax paper, draw a heart (or in our case, we drew hearts, this is our Valentine’s exchange project)

Dip the tissue paper into the glue/water mixture and then put it on the heart.

All the hearts done:

Once it’s done, let it dry. I had to wait overnight and I put it on top of my dryer so that it would dry faster

Cut out the heart shape, punch some holes in it and string up ribbon so it can be hung

Letter Of The Week ! C c !

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:50:00 +0000

Caterpillar C !

There are so many children’s books with caterpillars in them that they are very familiar to most young kids. I always aim to use something they immediately recognize so that I am reinforcing the letter’s sound .

Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of different color construction paper, paint, a marker,glue,pom poms, a pipe cleaner, googley eyes, and scissors.
Draw a big C with your marker on one piece of construction paper.
Have your child paint the C, we are using paint rollers, I try to give my son options when possible and he chose the paint rollers. You could use crayons or markers too!
Add as many glue dots as you have pom poms, make sure there is a lot of glue, pom poms need a good amount to stay put. Also add two smaller globs of glue for the eyes.
Add your pom poms! I held them and asked my son which color he wanted, then he put it on.
Add the googley eyes. Let dry.
Cut the C out ,add the pipe cleaner by poking two small holes and threading it through, glue the C onto the 2nd piece of construction paper.

Books !

” Bob and Otto” by Robert O. Bruel is a lovely story about 2 friends who must part ways , in this case because one is a caterpillar who needs to build a chrysalis and the other an earth worm who needs to dig deep into the ground. What I like about this book is that it goes on to explain that the earth worm’s digging is vital for the trees to grow so that the caterpillar can eat the leaves and turn into a butterfly. I like the lesson about how we all play a part!

” The Crunching Munching Caterpillar” by Sheridan Cain is another story about a caterpillar who is not happy about his lot in life. There is a fair bit of language that some parents would object to. This caterpillar is often reminded that he is too fat to fly- so that poses a few challenges to parents like myself who are trying to instill healthy body images as well as using respectful words with others in our children. I have dealt with this book in two ways, first by saying that the caterpillar is getting fat but it’s a good thing because he will be sleeping for a long time in his chrysalis and needs that fat to live. Also I have simply replaced fat with big, a word that is much less ugly to many people’s ears.

More Fun !

For another fun bug activity head over to

for my weekly activity .Older Children will love it!

Letter Of The Week ! R r !

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Rainbow R !

My son is so into rainbows right now, I have no clue why but I am running with it! Doing anything with rainbows is a great opportunity to talk about many colors, patterns and with older children optical illusions. My 2 year old won’t be learning about that for a while but we have been chatting about colors all day.

Gather your materials. You will need multiple pages of construction paper, however you don’t need the whole page, so you may be able to round up enough from your scrap pile. The colors you will needs are red, orange yellow, green, blue and purple. Also you will need a back piece, a plain white sheet of regular paper , scissors, black marker and glue.
Start by making a big R outlined in black marker on a thin white piece of paper, it needs to be thin so after you finish the gluing you can see the outline for cutting.
Cut the colored paper into strips, we needed 2 of each color, I just stacked the paper and cut .
Add the glue, this is a great opportunity to let your child do the glue since it needs to be all over and not precise at all.
Start stacking the strips, I did the first few then handed them to my son to glue on, he yelled out the color and we had fun. Normally I wouldn’t have played such a large role, but I knew he would love the end result. If he had insisted I would have been fine with just letting him go too, let them decide.
Let the strips dry on the R.
When dry cut it out following the lines on the back.
Glue onto a piece of construction paper.

Additional Activities

You can’t have a rainbow without water!
Check out my latest contribution to

to learn more about why when your child is playing with water they are doing much more than just making a mess in your kitchen !

Learning is Blissful !

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Don’t miss our debut on Blissful Kids Today !
Click on the link to see what all the fuss is about !

Exciting News!

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:41:00 +0000

I am thrilled to announce that I will be a
If you aren’t familiar with Blissful Kids or the whole Blissfully Domestic online magazine you must check it out. It’s a one stop shop for real women! I am excited to be a part of this wonderful group of talented women who come together to make the internet Blissful !