Got Books?

I have delayed in sharing this awesome information here on this blog up until now, but I can't not share it anymore! ;)

One of the reasons I have been a little absent from blogging lately is because I have been incredibly blessed to be busy enriching families' lives with beautiful, educational Usborne Books. I have been selling them for over a year and have made good money, met lots of wonderful families, and introduced and allowed these books to go into the hands of hundreds of children and schools.

The books shown above are part of this month's promotion that ends on Monday, September 27th at NOON! You can start your own business just in time for the rockin' fall selling season for just $50!!! To check out more information, you can see the Game Time Kit specifics here or go to my website and look around. Awesome opportunity with an awesome company with awesome products! Win-Win-Win! (or email me for more info - chadandlaurabeth(at)yahoo(dot)com.)

Oh, and did I mention that I paid for a trip to Disney last fall just from September to December doing a "stay-at-home" side job? :)

Good Vibrations

Anyone humming a Beach Boys tune now after that title? :)

Well, for the six people who might ever read this blog anymore since I am so delinquent, I wanted to share some fun with you.

I recently got this book for Lawton, 100 Science Experiments that you can get from this website, :), and we have been having so much fun. This particular experiment really tickled our fancy so I thought I would pony up and share with everyone.

Here's what you need: a bowl, saran wrap, tissue paper and a booming radio. ;)

Here's why you should do it: To visually see that all sounds are made by vibrations in the air. These vibrations reach your ear and make your eardrum vibrate, which makes you be able to hear sounds.

Here's how you do it:

1. Stretch a piece of plastic wrap as tightly as you can across a large bowl.

2. Wad up a few tiny pieces of tissue paper and spread them over the plastic wrap. Set the bowl next to a speaker.

3. Play some music. Start low and gradually get louder. Pump up the volume!! . . . Pump up the jam, pump it up, while your feet are stompin', and the jam is pumpin' . . . anyone have this humming in your head now? You're welcome.

4. Play different types of music, rock out, and watch what happens!

And here's a little video below to show you what happens if you don't do it yourself. . .

Here are a few disclaimers to know before you watch.

1. I have loathed these 1970's speakers for our entire 9 3/4 years of marriage. They came in handy for this experiment, though. Bose anyone?
2. Never mind Carolina's crusty macaroni and cheese face. It was right after dinner and she got in the bath very shortly after.
3. How you see my husband is how I see him. With two remotes in his hands - all the time. ha! Love you!

Don't you definitely want to watch now? :)

sound vibrations from Laura Beth High on Vimeo.

My newest favorite author

Today I had an hour to kill with no money to spend. So, Carolina and I popped in to our local fantastic bookstore and just happened upon story time. There are also toys, puppets and a train table for the little ones to play with there. While she was amusing herself, I was actually able to browse some new children's books and realized that I have a beloved new author I am going to seek out next time we go to the library.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal has written several adorable books . . . and I saw Duck! Rabbit! (I know books are supposed to be underlined but can't figure out how with simple Blogger) for the first time at story time at our downtown library a few months ago. I couldn't remember who the author was, but after seeing her other books today, I am literally going to "check her out"!! :)

Look closely. Is it a duck or rabbit?? You decide . . .

Oh my. I have to find this for Lawton because he would think this is hilarious. Bedtime for Mommy totally captures our night time procedures for bedtime - every detail down to the glass of water, etc. - except the roles are reversed. So fun.

Do you have a kid who doesn't like to eat his veggies? I do. Little Pea has to have five pieces of CANDY before he can have his "dessert". I'm not telling you what his "dessert" is . . . read it yourself! :) Genius.

Do you have a child who wants to burn the midnight oil with you? Little Hoot (pictured at the top) desires quite the opposite. Love it.

I'm sure all her other books are adorable, too, but these are the only ones I was able to quickly read before Carolina decided she was tired of playing trains. Check Amy Krouse Rosenthal out - seriously!! :)

Historic flooding

I know that most of the people that read this blog are from around the country and the world, so I just wanted to spread some news to ask for prayers and awareness because of devastating flooding in my region. You can click HERE to see my other post - I couldn't copy and paste here for some reason . . .

Thanks for your prayers.

Can you grasp this?

Back a few weeks ago, I was helping Lawton do something and Carolina desperately wanted to help out. So, I quickly grabbed two bowls, some fun pom-poms and let her "grasp" the new "lesson". (Yes, this is a true Montessori lesson that is at the very beginning of the Practical Life sequence for those of you unfamiliar with Montessori lessons.) She was very occupied and let us get our work done!

Here's what you need: Two bowls, and some like objects to be grasped. (beads, beans, marbles, cotton balls, unifix blocks, pasta, etc.)

Here's why you should do it: It teaches the very young child order, concentration and coordination. They feel a great deal of satisfaction at completing a task and emptying the bowl - and can also be very therapeutic! (She did this over and over for about fifteen minutes. Seriously.)

Here's how you do it: Place all objects in the left hand bowl (a subliminal message that everything goes from left to right - always start left!) Show them how to grasp all objects with their hands and place in the right hand bowl. Repeat back into the left hand bowl. and repeat. and repeat. and repeat. :)

Can you see her deep concentration?

Oh no! Poor Joe!

Before I go on, I must explain my sideways pictures . . . Recently we got a new laptop, and I STILL haven't figured out how to upload my pictures the way I like and can edit them. After messing with it several times and reading and trying and retrying, for some reason I'm not doing something right. Arggghh.



Okay - so here's a fun simple game you can play at home! Oh no! Poor Joe!

Here's why you should do it: Everyone needs to learn their body parts, of course. This also helps with visual discrimination (what's missing in the picture) and then processing the name of the missing body part. It's fun, too, and creates a nice rhythmic chant!

Here's what you need: Cards made up of a person. One card has the complete body, and each card afterwards has a missing body part. You can make and trace your own, or you can purchase your own. I found these cards here.

Here's how you do it: Look at each card and say, "Oh no! Poor Joe! Joe is missing his _________." Pause for a couple of seconds, and if your child needs help, then just fill in the blank for them. Play as much as you want and giggle at how funny "Joe" looks!

I've been counting down the days!!

To celebrate my LOVE of the Olympics that is starting tonight, I'm having a little giveaway over at my other blog! Hop on over and enter!

Put a lid on it

Is anyone even there? I totally don't blame you if you've all gone on . . . all three of you. :) I've been meaning to do this since Christmas when I put aside all these little boxes, but blah, blah, blah. . . you know how it goes. My other blog hasn't been neglected because, well, life goes on.

This "lesson" is a true Montessori Practical Life lesson that we were "trained" for. Of course, I'm not really doing it in true "Montessori" style, but "Momtessori" because Carolina is only 20 months old and it's just out and about.

Here's what you need: An assortment of boxes, jars, any container that can be opened and closed.

Here's why you should do it: To help with fine motor skills and one to one correspondence. Carolina has a hard time with a lot of these, but she keeps trying and asks for "hep" (help). She'll get it soon enough!

Here's how you do it: For those like me, I just put these all in a basket and we explored together and then she tried it . . . again and again. For those that are more purists, especially if you are doing this with an older child (around three), put out a rug and take them out one by one, placing the lid by the container. After all of them are opened, place the lids back on and put back in the container/tray.

You'll need the sun on your side

For this activity to work, you'll need the weather to be on your side! Pick a day (if possible) where it will be sunny all day. Now, depending on where you live, you might have to wait a while. . .

Here's what you need: a large paved surface, chalk, and a sunny day!

Here's why should do it: It's a fun, hands on, visible way to explore how the earth moves in relation to the sun and learn while playing outside. :)

Here's how you do it: Head outside and trace their feet first, and then their shadow. Write out the time beside their head.

Lawton had to trace my shadow, too. :)

Later in the day, put your feet in your footprints and trace the shadow again. Talk about the differences in the directionality of the shadow, the length, and how the time and location of the sun affected these differences.
Do this as many times as you would like during the day, using different colors of chalk if you can. We were going to trace our shadows again for a third time, but Daddy decided to wash the cars in the driveway and disrupt our experiment. I couldn't complain! :)

Oooh . . . Pretty Beaded Garland!!

Just in case you missed it the first time . . . I posted this last winter and was reminded of this activity when perusing Target tonight. Be sure to stock up (after Christmas if you can remember! :)

Here's what you need: scissors, a bowl or container to "catch" all the cut beads, and strung beads of some sort (make sure, though, that you wee one doesn't find the strand of your grandmother's pearls!)

Here's why you should do it: This is an excellent way to practice hand-eye coordination and those tricky fine motor skills with those sweet, dirty, pudgy fingers! The cut-beads have lots of great uses, too, so don't throw them in the trash!


I think I got this tub for 75 cents after Christmas . . .
Cut a strand of 10-15 beads to make it manageable. Don't let your three year old hypnotize you either while you're at it!

Hold the strand and snip away! Warning: this can be dangerously addicting - just like popping all the bubble wrap until there isn't ONE bubble left!

Here's just one of the uses for cut beads! I wrote his name, put dots of glue along the letters, and there was even more hand-eye/fine motor skills work making sure that bead got on the dot of glue. You see, Lawton does not like to be "gooey" so he concentrated very hard so that glue wouldn't get on his hands!

We also used the cut beads to glue on Christmas trees we made in December. You could decorate Easter Eggs (on paper), make earrings when you draw and accessorize your peeps, and your two year old might want to stick them up their nose or in their ears. Oops! Just checking to see if you were actually reading! This is why you have to be careful if you have little ones crawling around underfoot! You don't have time to take your two year old to the doctor to be probed . . .

Stocking Stuffer Giveaway!!

Check out my other blog for a chance to win a Stocking Stuffer for your little elf!! Winners will be announced Monday . . . and I promise I will have a new post soon!

Jingle Bells . . .

All right - here's an idea for the little ones. . .

Here's what you need: a variety of objects, some of which make sound and some of which do not, and a container to put them in. I literally just looked in one basket in our playroom for these objects and didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. . . :)

Here's why you should do it: This is an auditory discrimination exercise in the simplest form . . . Sound? Or no sound?

Here's how you do it: In a perfect world, and a perfect lesson, I would take out an object, shake it gently in my ear then her ear, and nonverbally shake my head yes or no to answer "sound or no sound?" Then, in a perfect world, I would place it on the rug in the correct category and proceed to the next object. However, by watching this clip, you can see that this is not how the "perfect lesson" went. ha! My husband thought we should practice and do the video over again, but then that wouldn't be keepin' it real, would it? :) (and besides, I'm too lazy to redo it over again. . .) But you know, after watching this video I probably should have redone it for MY sake - does my hair really look this bad all the time? And do I really make these crazy faces all the time in real life? Just keepin' it real. . .

Do you have any left??

Halloween candy that is . . .

We have mostly unwanted candy now, but a week or two ago, here's what we did with all our, I mean Lawton's :), loot. ha!

Here's what you need: Candy. Lots and lots of candy. (or any other sortable stuff.) Possibly paper and markers if your child is old enough.

Here's why you should do it: Excellent math activity. . . sorting, classifying, counting and graphing. And hey, you should have sorted through all the candy to make sure no dangerous things got thrown in the bag (I actually found two very questionable pieces this time). Oh, and OF COURSE you made sure that you found all the dark chocolate Mounds, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers because, um, of course, YOU wouldn't want your child to have an allergic reaction or anything to nuts . . . even if your child isn't allergic. ahem. :)

Here's how you do it: Sort away! And you know what's ODD? When we were sorting, there wasn't a single Snickers or Reese's to be found! Hmmm. . . I sure did think that I had seen a few in there on Halloween night . . .

Note to all the grandparents: Lawton loves Starbursts, Twix, and Kit Kat. (those are usually his first choices anyways.)

If you have a younger child, you might want to choose just two or three different types and then ask a few questions.

• Count how many in each group
  
• Which group has the most?


• Which group has the least?


• Are there any groups that have the same amount?


• You could sort by color, size, or flavors, too.

We picked out a few of his favorites and I drew out a graph and let him write the words on it. He liked writing . . . but the coloring in of the boxes? Not so much. Have I ever said on this blog that he does not like anything crafty? AT ALL? Coloring in the boxes was not his idea of fun . . .

First we laid out the candy on top of the paper, and then we colored in the boxes.

The finished product . . . notice we only graphed three kinds . . . he ran out of steam the day we were doing it and then we somehow ran out of candy by the time he felt like finishing. ha!
Oh, and I won't tell if all you have left is dum-dum suckers and boxes of raisins to graph. :)

It's another book giveaway!

Well, the busy-ness of fall has taken over, and that, combined with Carolina, my seventeen month old, who tossed the computer off the couch means I have been a terrible blogger lately. :( Hopefully very soon I will have some new stuff up!

To "make-up" for my blogging slackness, I am giving away your choice of a Christmas book at my other blog. Go check it out HERE to leave a comment to win. Please comment on the other blog . . . this blog won't count. Good luck!

Can you make the grade?

Our Friday plans were cancelled because of fever from one of our friends who was supposed to come over, and I immediately tried to start to plan where we could go. To the Y? To the library for a puppet show? To run errands? To the zoo? And then, I just decided that we needed to just stay home and play. . . by ourselves. . . all day. We are always on the go - with school, playgroups, story time, the Y, constant errands, yadda yadda. Does anyone else feel this way? Would life really slow down if we lived in the country? Or would we just be on the road more? I don't know the answer, but we sure did enjoy ourselves outside (for a LONG time) on Friday. (see Sister's fascination with her belly button? :)
Lawton got excited because we found some signs of fall! Our maple tree is starting to drop a few gorgeous red leaves, and he excitedly started gathering the goods.

Carolina got in on the action, too!

When we came back inside, I thought we could do a quick and easy Momtessori activity (since obviously we have been too busy to update the blog - sorry!)

Here's what you need: anything that can be graded - i.e. like objects in increasing sizes. Pine cones, rocks, leaves, shells, cups and blocks are a few examples. You can have as few as three and increase as much as you want depending on the age and ability of your child.

Here's why you should do it: Grading objects helps in visual discrimination and spatial recognition/concepts.

Here's how you do it:

Spread out the objects in a random pile.

Search for the smallest leaf and place to the left of your workspace.

Keep looking for the smallest object in the pile until all objects are graded.

Yippee for fall!!

This is the next best thing . . .

Do you remember this post about sandpaper letters?

Or this post about writing in "sand"?

I have just discovered the next best thing, except possibly even BETTER!

The ABC Touchy-Feely Board Book!

Each letter has its own textured feel, and most of the associated pictures have a touchy-feely patch! (See the bee stripes and the car?) So cute! So, not only can your child trace the letters to as a precursor to writing, there is also an association of the written letter/symbol with the correct sound! Remember my post about sounds? :) (I love this book!)


Here's a close up with my super basic no frills digital camera . . . (the bee's stripes are fuzzy!)


There's even a similar book for numbers!

123 Touchy Feely Board Book

Just thought I would share! :)

It's the small things . . .

I'm embarrassed to say how excited I got the other day in the grocery store. I mean, really excited. Over this. I jug of fruit punch. Not because of the flavor, or the price, but because of . . . THIS!!! It is a pint sized jug! How adorable!! Why I didn't buy more, I'm not sure, because it was only 33 cents!! For the two local readers (ha!) I got it at Kroger near the dairy section in a display.

And this reminded me of how important a proper pouring lesson is . . .

Here's what you need: A child sized pitcher/jug of some sort, a cup, and a thirsty child! :)

Here's why you should do it: So you don't have to pour them any more drinks! (Just kidding!) Seriously, independence is a wonderful thing, even if you have to mop your newly mopped floor after finally getting around to doing it in the first place after three weeks. Not that I would know anything about that . . . ahem. Pouring also helps develop concentration and coordination - very important skills! Here is a great small pitcher you can purchase to keep filled in your refrigerator if you can't find a jug like mine. (This linked pitcher would be appropriate for an older two/three year old.

Here's how you do it: Teach your child to grasp the handle with the dominant hand and hold the underneath with the opposite hand. You have to model and/or place their hands at first.

(don't you love the Spiderman costume over his nice shirt from picture day at school? ;)

And the thumbs up and an attempt at a wink for a tasty drink all by himself!

Thumbs up from me, too!