Giveaway: Number Practice Pages

Yesterday I introduced the new Number Practice Pages set.  Now you can enter to win one of three FREE copies of this set!

Here are the requirements:

1) “Favorite” my Teachers Notebook Store.  (Click the “add to favorite shops” link just under my shop header.)

2) Once you done that, leave a comment on this post.  If it’s already one of your favorites, leave a comment letting me know.

You may leave ONE COMMENT – just one entry per person, please!

I will choose a winner around noon (central time) on Saturday, July 28th.
Good Luck!

Solar System PreK Pack

I’ve been working on this one for a while now.  My husband was gone this evening, so I decided to finish it up after the kids went to bed.  It’s available at Teachers Notebook for $1.25.

{Click on the image below to purchase the pack at Teachers Notebook.}

You can view the full product description at Teachers Notebook.  Here are a few sample pages:

Count How Many

Handwriting

Three Part (Nomenclature) Cards

9 Page Mini Book of Planet Facts

Shape Matching

Size Sequencing

 

…and much, much more.  You’ll find a full product description at Teachers Notebook.

Number Practice Pages

{Click on the image below to view this item in my Teachers Notebook shop.}

It’s been a while since I’ve offered anything new in my Teacher’s Notebook Shop.  Life has been SO busy lately!  I’ve been working on these pages for Alex & Max, and I *finally* got a chance to finish it this morning.

This pack includes 20 pages of practice sheets for your preschooler.  The lines are large, so they are great for little ones who are just learning the fine motor skills required for holding a pencil and writing.  I’m pricing it at $2, as you’ll be able to use it again and again for your children or in your classroom.

Your little one can trace and write the numbers, and then you can keep it simple and count/circle the objects at the bottom of the page.

Add a little FUN and do it at snack time.  Before circling the objects at the bottom of the page, set out a small snack to use as counting manipulatives ~ raisins, M&Ms, or goldfish crackers are great choices!

Count out the correct number of snacks, then use the snacks to cover the pictures on the page.  After your child has counted & covered the correct number, remove (and EAT!) them one at a time while counting!

For a complete list of images used, see the product description on Teachers Notebook.  Remember…as always…buy THREE items from my shop in one transaction, and you’ll be able to receive one FREE pack of your choice via e-mail!

Family Pictures

We haven’t had family pictures taken since Alex was a baby.  Since we feel our family is complete, I thought perhaps we should go ahead and get new portraits.  

Ironically, after I scheduled our pictures, my extended family made plans to get photos done with a different photographer the same week.  And THEN we had church directory pictures only a few days later.  Needless to say, we’re all pretty tired of saying cheese! ;)

Many of you have seen the photos on my personal Facebook account, but I wanted to share these with the rest of you just for fun…and have these on here for when I print our annual blog book so that these photos make the book.

These are going to serve as the kids 1 yr, 3 yr, and 5 yr pictures. 
(These are just the “proofs”, so there are a few imperfections in the pictures.)

 

Vacation Bible School

Our church’s vacation Bible school took place last week.  Once again, we did a Go Fish VBS.  The Go Fish music is SO. MUCH. FUN!   My kids still listen to last year’s VBS cd all the time, and we loved this years’ music just as much.

Although our VBS starts at age three, the preschool director asked if Max would like to come since he turns three in a month.  We missed the first night because of a family event, but both Max and Alex enjoyed the rest of the week.  Max was WORN OUT by day five, though, because we do an evening VBS and the kids were going to be very late every night.  He chose to stay with Mommy on night #5, but Alex still had fun.

Here are both kids “dancing” on the stage at the end of night #3…
Max is wearing the white t-shirt and Alex is on the left in an “official” maroon VBS t-shirt.

It’s not about the numbers, but we had over 100 kids each night of the week.  Usually, we break 100 once of twice throughout the week, so this was our biggest turnout in several years :)

Even better, we had a VBS family attend our church on Sunday morning.  THAT’S what it’s all about ~ getting the kids excited about Jesus and helping families to feel welcome in our church.  Even if only 10 kids came to VBS all week long, as long as one family came to know Jesus or renewed their faith as a result, that would be a huge blessing!

I am usually in charge of registration before VBS begins, and then I work the registration table, guide kids to the right spot, take attendance, and answer questions as parents drop off/pick up their children. 

Once you get past the first night, there’s some “down time” in the middle.  Jensyn & Mommy walked around to listen in on some Bible stories, watched some games, enjoy the singing times, and check out the crafts.  We spent a little time hanging out in the church nursery, too.  She LOVES it in there!

  

Alex and Max chose not to go on stage when the kids sang for the church family.  I can completely understand, as I *hate* to be on stage for any reason, but I sure would love to have seen them up there singing with their friends!

SO…now that we’re past garage sale, vacation, family events, and VBS…perhaps we can get a little normalcy around our house for a few weeks.  Keith said last night that he’s looking forward to some “real” dinners this week instead of quick homemade meals, frozen pizzas, and all the restaurant food we had on vacation.  Sigh…guess that means it’s time to start menu planning, couponing, and grocery shopping again ;)

2012 Vacation, Part 4

On Tuesday, we took our kiddos to the Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.   It’s a wonderful aquarium, with lots of neat little touches for little ones…and it was made even better by the fact that we could stay inside on such a hot day!

This place was PACKED with people, but our kids really enjoyed it!  Even Jensyn loved it, and she was saying “shishy” (fishy) by the end of our visit.

   looking at the poison dart frogs

if you look closely, you’ll see Jensyn standing to look at the “shishies”

What Keith & I really liked was the conveyor belt that keeps people moving right along as they go through the underwater tunnel.  You could step back to get off the conveyor if you wanted to stay put for a bit, but you couldn’t stand close to the glass without beyond moved along.  Very good planning!

Jensyn LOVED watching the fish swim overhead.  You can see her looking and reaching for the fish in these pictures…

 

swimming overhead…

touching the horseshoe crabs…

  

Jensyn LOVES animals, and she wanted to touch it. 
She got nervous when her hands hit the water, though,
so she only touched it for one brief moment.

I loved the jellyfish!  They looked so pretty!

The aquarium had a few spots where kids could crawl through tunnels
and pop up in little glass domes for a peek at the fish.

   

Jensyn took off through one tunnel, so Mommy had to crawl through and chase her.
Let’s just say those tunnels are NOT designed for grown-ups ;)

  

I saw this bib in the gift shop.  We don’t need any bibs, but the message fits our
snack~lovin’ Jensyn quite well…

After leaving the aquarium, we were HUNGRY! 
Here’s Jensyn enjoying her lunch at Shoney’s.
They didn’t have a very good food selection at 2PM.  It seemed to be breakfast leftovers and a few other random items that they were beginning to set out for dinner, but kids eat free…and Jensyn sure loved it!

 

Each of the ladies took one night to cook, and Tuesday was my night.  The kids played (and I think Jensyn napped) while the adults played card games in the kitchen.  Thankfully, we have a patient family who tolerated me jumping up and down from the table while trying to simulataneously cook dinner & play cards. 

I’m pretty sure we went swimming at the resort and then took the kids in the hot tub on our balcony on Tuesday evening.  No pictures of swimming until later in the week…

2012 Vacation, Part 3

We were debating where we’d like to spend the next few days after the reunion, and Keith & I started talking about the possibility of Gatlinburg.  I don’t remember who brought it up first, but I do know that’s what we decided to do.

We learned that Keith’s brother and sister in law were considering the same thing, so we decided to look into renting a cabin together.  Since Keith’s parents were also considering traveling after the reunion, they joined in with our plans.  Our cabin, Bear Hugs, was located in Hidden Springs Resort in Pigeon Forge, just behind Dollywood.  Our cabin was one of the highest cabins in the entire resort community.   The view was amazing!  (The road?  Well, let’s just say the first few trips up & down the cabin road made this flat-Indiana-land girl a little nervous!)

We went to the office to check in and get our keys, and then we drove to the cabin.  We were all ready to be out of the heat.  Keith’s poor parents had trouble with their car’s a/c for a portion of the trip, so we knew they would be looking forward to a nice, cool cabin when they arrived.

Unfortunately, we walked into a VERY hot cabin.  Keith’s brother went straight to the thermostat to turn down the temperature.  Several minutes later, the air conditioner still had not kicked in.  We started to get a bit concerned. 

Long story short, Keith’s dad stayed at the cabin to wait for the maintenance man while the rest of us went to Five Guys for dinner.   A few hours later, the a/c was thankfully repaired…but it takes a long time to cool off a three story cabin that has reached temperatures over 100 degrees!  It was a HOT night’s sleep. 

The happy parts are:
(1) It could be repaired, so we didn’t have to move to another cabin.  We LOVED the view and the cabin layout…the double sets of bunkbeds in the lowest level were perfect for all three boys.

(2) Keith went to the office and requested a full refund of our first nights’ stay, and they agree to do so.  Vacation just got cheaper! ;)

   

We had two levels of balconies, one with rocking chairs and another with a hot tub and porch swing.  Our kids were ONLY allowed outside with adults as the slats were spaced a little too far apart for our comfort.  (That, and I wouldn’t put it past Max to try hanging over the edge just for fun, ha!) 

blowing bubbles with their cousins, Kyle & Jessica.

Here’s the straight-down view from our balcony. 
I preferred to stand back from the edge a bit ;)

 

We drove into Gatlinburg with Kevin & Leanne’s family, where we took in some gift shops, candy shops, and other random stores.  My boys enjoyed watching how taffy is made, and then we let each of them choose a $1 bag of taffy as a special treat.

Kyle bought a new Airsoft gun while we were shopping, and he was pretty excited about that.  Later in the week, he bought a new knife, too.  I think I’ll just keep my boys little.  I don’t think I want them to ever be big enough to like big boy toys ;)

We stopped at Cooters Museum/Store.  My boys loved the tow truck!

Max & the General Lee

a patient Jessica helped my kids chase birds down the street

Here are a few more pictures of the cabin… these were taken on our last morning at the cabin, when a thick fog rolled in and took away our view.

the cousins.