Dominoes!

Isaac's brother had the best idea ever for a Christmas present for Little Boy:



Little Boy loves to count and loves to line things up. And isn't that pretty much what dominoes are all about? Yep, turns out that Little Boy also loves dominoes.

The dominoes box says that it's for age 8+. I guess that's for really playing the game--strategizing and all that. Little Boy's pretty far away from there. But it's a great game for a four-year-old to work on counting, matching, and...

...lining things up. Heh.

Becoming Self-Reliant

“How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being.”

-Julie B. Beck

Building Our Home Library

My local library has been fundraising for a long time. They're trying to fund a new building. And as part of their fundraising, they've been selling used books.

I wouldn't buy a used book, even if it costs a few cents, if I didn't think we'd read it. Most of the books there fall under that category.

But once in awhile, when I look really carefully, I'll find something that I MUST HAVE ON MY SHELF.



Like these, for example. I've also picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (yeah, it's the British edition), James and the Giant Peach, and The Indian in the Cupboard. For 25 cents each!

These are books that, of course, Little Boy is too young to read. But Isaac and I will read them now, and when Little Boy's old enough, I want to have some good books around that he can dig into. I think we're off to a good start.

Street Signs

Little Boy is obsessed with cars.



So I knew this idea from The Mailbox magazine would be a big hit with him.



I looked up clip art of different street signs...



and taped them to some of his blocks. He was already using his blocks to make roads, so I don't know why I didn't think of making street signs on my own.



This was several weeks ago, and he still uses them. And now he points out all kinds of street signs when we're driving around.

That is, when he's not pointing out every car and truck on the road.

Brushing Teeth!

But not really.

Before we get started here, I have to tell you about The Mailbox magazine [this isn't an ad--I just like it]. My preschool-y friend told me about it one day, and I checked an issue of it out of our library. Oh, man. It's geared toward PreK teachers, but most of the activities are totally adaptable for a smaller group of kids--or for one kid, if you're like me.

So you're going to be seeing a lot of ideas here that I got from The Mailbox.

Like this one!



Here's the idea: print out a big ol' picture of a tooth. Put it in a smooth page protector, and scribble on it with dry-erase pens. Then explain to your kid [ahem, your student] about why we brush our teeth--and then give them an old toothbrush and have them scrub all the marks off the tooth.

I brush Little Boy's teeth regularly, but we don't spend much time talking about why. We're usually in a hurry to brush and move on to whatever's next. So this activity was a good reinforcement of why, exactly, we brush our teeth.