Summer and fun with the little people.

We officially finished our school year last week.  We have a few straggling books to wrap up, but for the most part, we are in "summer mode."  For summer, we typically do 2 days per week of math and Spanish, because those 2 subjects don't fare well by taking 3 months off.   Bible Bee also started last week, so we are in full swing of reciting Bible verses around here.   For those of you who didn't sign up yet, you have til June 30th.  Even if you don't want to compete for the national bee, I highly recommend you signing up just for the great stuff you get!

This year, each child gets their own Bible, their own pack of nice, laminated Bible memory verses, a Bible Bee t-shirt, pin and a 3ring binder with a 12 week Bible study of Colossians geared towards their age level. (3 different levels)  Not only that, but if you sign up a child, you also get 2 parent binders to do the study with them and they tell you how to meet once/week as a family to talk about what you are learning.
Last but not least is a Bible CD-rom Sword drill game to help you learn your verses and compete with other Bible Bee participants.  All that for $25/child.  Go to biblebee.org if you want to sign up!
This would actually make a great Bible curriculum for the school year too, if you want to get serious about Bible memory and dig into Colossians....

I have really been wanting to spend more time with our younger children doing more with Bible memory as well, even though they aren't signed up with Bible Bee.   I started something Monday that is going really well so far.  I have a CD that I used when the older kids were little called SING THE WORD FROM A-Z.
It takes one BIble verse that starts with each letter of the alphabet and puts it to song.
Yesterday we learned the song for A: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
Today, we reviewed A and added B: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. Acts 16:31.
I'm pleased with how easily the 3,5,7 yr olds are able to memorize when it's put to song.
I push "repeat" and we listen over and over for about 20 minutes.
I also type out the verse and put a picture on it to color while they listen or print it out in a font that is hollow inside to color the actual words.  They love it!

I also wanted to tell you about the best set of preschool workbooks I've used yet. ANSWERS FOR PRESCHOOLERS.
They are perfect for 3 and 4 yr olds.  The set has 2 workbooks, 2 teacher books and 1 CD, and a Resource packet.  I personally just bought the workbooks and CD of music.  I don't like to be told what to do by a teacher book cause I tend to get legalistic and stress myself out.  Grin.
The workbooks are cheapest at CBD.com   $18.99 per workbook.
We just do as many pages as Praise feels like doing every day.  It teaches numbers up to 12, all the ABC's and counting, colors, shapes, writing skills, Bible stories and crafts.     That is all we are using this year for preschool (3 yr old) and the Sing the Word CD and Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.    We do a lot of fun reading before naptime every day too and have a Bible story book.

I've been asked a few times lately about preschool, so I thought I'd take a blog post to just share what I am doing with my 3 yr old.  Hope it's helpful to someone.

Oh, and on a side note, I was at a fundraising event this weekend for a local women's shelter, and a volunteer there working one of the bouncy rides, got my attention and asked me if I wanted to sign up my 3 yr old for Head Start.  I smiled and said that I homeschooled and that she already had a head start. 
The lady had never met anyone that homeschooled and seriously believed it wasn't legal to do that. She was shocked when I said that there were over a million kids homeschooled in the US and that it was, in fact, legal in all 50 states.    She asked me what kind of credentials I needed and what paperwork I needed to fill out to do such a thing.  I told her I had to simply write a letter to the school board to tell them I was homeschooling and my credentials was just giving birth to them.  lol    Funny how society is thinking that Head Start is better than a mama for teaching a 3 yr old and that a parent is not capable of teaching their children to read.   I am so blessed that I get to teach them all the things they learn and get to learn right along with them.  I wouldn't want a stranger getting all that fun!!