Free Printable Mini Books, Puppets, Family Tree and Pumpkin Photo Frame

 

Here's a free, printable Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Mini Book.

Here's a fun way to teach the life cycle of a pumpkin. Your children will love creating and reading books of their own.

Take a look at this My Trick-or-Treat Ghost Puppet and Mini Book!

This is a fun, interactive story. Children get to choose what treat the ghost will eat and what color they will become. My youngest daughter just created this little mini book today, and she loves it. It also comes with puppets to act out the story.

Family Tree Craft

Looking for a fun activity to do with family around Thanksgiving time?
This family tree will keep the family busy.
(Tip: Have your family company help the little ones create it, as you make Thanksgiving dinner.)

Here's a free, printable Pumpkin Photo Frame Craft!

 

Print out, color and add a photo of your choice. You can put in photos from the pumpkin patch or the children dressed up for Halloween.

Happy Autumn!

Caroline Brooke

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Mother Goose Time - Planet Earth Art and Learning to Create a Pod and Attach it to a Satellite

Here is a fun Mother Goose Time Earth Day activity to create with your children.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Planet Earth Art

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Planet Earth Art

Mother Goose Time provides all the supplies you need inside their fun school bus box for the month, but you can also create this activity at home with your own supplies.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Mother Goose Time sends a box each month will activities for everyday.
As you open the Mother Goose Time box you will see little clear bags full of supplies for everyday.
Mother Goose Time is appropriate for schools and homeschool preschool-age children.

Planet Earth Craft

By Mother Goose Time

Appropriate for children pre-k through elementary-age.

Supplies:

(For Each Child)

• Black paper
• White paper
• Paper plate

(Your Supplies)

• Paint
• Glue
• Scissors
• Crayons or chalk

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

"Mom, Look at the stars I am making!"

Discuss

• What colors do you think you would see if you could see the whole Earth at once?

"We see blue and green. There is more blue, because there is more water. The green is the land."

Create

• Invite each child to add blue and green paint to a paper plate. then, press it onto the white paper. (We decided to skip this part and just cut our Earth out of the paper plate.)
• Encourage him or her to use one hand to hold the paper and the other to spin the plate and pretend it is the Earth.

"The earth spins around the sun, Mom."

"That's right!"

• While it is drying, use light-colored crayons or chalk to decorate the dark paper. Then, cut out the Earth and glue it on.

Field Trip to Irvine Discovery Science Cube

Creating and Rocket Launching Pods Off the Earth and Attaching Onto Satellites

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

The girls enter the Mission Control Center. They are about to design pods to attach to satellites.

One of the many field trips we went on this month was to the Science Cube in Irvine.

The Irvine Science Cube had a new room, which looked like a satellite maintenance and creation station. It wall called Mission Control Center. (At least the room had changed since our last visit. I'm not sure how long it has been there.) The girls loved designing their own pods to rocket launch from the Earth and attach to satellites. They were able to design and give names to all of their pods that they attached to the satellites.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
The girls are designing their own pods to launch and attach to the satellite.
Each pod is given it's own initials.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 This is exactly the type of thing our youngest daughter is into... Space, science and being creative. She loved all of it.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

You can see our youngest daughter's that she attached to the satellite right here. It is called "MB". She got to choose the initials and design it.

As they finished designing their pod, they saw it launch off of the Earth from their work station and attach onto the satellite on the huge screen in front of them. Each child can work independently at his/her own station, and see their own work, as well as the work of other children working at their own station.

This activity was a lot fun for the girls. They were also able to see a robot-type space vehicle that was used to explore another planet. This vehicle has a research station that can be operated remotely.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 Here are more pictures of our visit to the Irvine Science Cube.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 Listening to and learning from the experts... Look at our little one. She was soaking it all in. This is her passion.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Actively experiencing a wind tunnel.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 Our little pilot flying a plane... Of course.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

We loved all the hand-on experiences at the Irvine Science Cube!

What a fun day!

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Mother Goose Time - Discover the Desert, Pyramid, Hieroglyphics and Horse Craft

During the month of March, our Mother Goose Time topic is Discover the Desert. You can see that we have a colorful poster for every month, showing our monthly topic, each week and our daily activities. I love this web, because introducing our month this way will later help the children organize their thought for writing activities.

Monthly Topic Web, Discover the Desert

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

As you can see, our oldest daughter decided to change the main characters on the story web. She personalized it by creating illustrations of her sister and herself. She taped her illustrations over the top. I noticed they tend to like to have characters that look like themselves. As a teacher, I noticed all kids like to do this. I guess that's why they have so many types of books that have personalization options now. As soon as she finishes her work, she tends to self-direct herself, as she creates her own little projects.

 

Mother Goose Time is a preschool curriculum that can easily be differentiated to include older and younger siblings. It can also give the older children a fun, yet educational break from rigorous studies. It can be used in school or homeschool settings.

 

I spent a great deal of time searching for the best curriculum I could find, and Mother Goose Time was the best answer for our family. My preschool-age daughter loves Mother Goose Time. Even though she is going to be in Kindergarten next year, we will likely continue using Mother Goose Time as we add more reading, writing and math. We will likely get her Kindergarten curriculum through www.SetonHome.com, because that is working really well with her older sister. Mother Goose Time already has a lot of science, history, music, movement and art that can be educational for older elementary-age children. They also have an Experience God supplement that is excellent. I highly recommend it.

 

Some of our favorite crafts this month were creating pyramids with linking cubes, hieroglyphics and the horse craft... or unicorn.

Portable Bulletin Board

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Here is our portable bulleting board for March. It's so nice that you can move this around and even bring it with you if you are homeschooling as you are traveling. We added a United States of America flag to ours, so we can say the Pledge of Allegiance. I think next year we may add some prayers on it, too.

 

Daily Topic Poster

Each day, we have a new daily topic poster to add onto our bulletin board.

 

Pyramid Linking Cubes

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

She really enjoyed using her colorful linking cubes to create pyramids. Mother Goose Time provided these linking cubes along with the beautiful photographs of the pyramid.

Hieroglyphics

This was such a fun and educational activity. Mother Goose Time provided the sand and cards with words, such as house, foot, cobra, water, mouth and arm. The girls enjoyed creating the hieroglyphics. Then, they naturally decided to start creating their own hieroglyphics.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Creating hieroglyphics in the sand was really fun for the girls. This is one of the activities that was appropriate for her older sister, too.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

"Mom, I made cobras!"

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"Look mom, I made an eye."

Horse Craft

Our oldest daughter is such a fun older sister. Look how she is using the horse she made to surprise her sister. Her sister just woke up and she wanted to teach her how to make the craft. She actually decided to create a unicorn.

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Here you see water canteens, horse (a unicorn) and camel crafts. Of course, Mother Goose Time provided songs, games and lots of other fun activities, too.

 

All in this adorable, little school bus box.



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

 

Thank you, Mother Goose Time!

 

 

 

 

Mother Goose Time - Pet Tortoise Craft and FREE Preschool Printables

Take a look at this adorable Mother Goose Time Pet Tortoise Craft!



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"Mom, I love my tortoise. He is so cute."

She had so much fun creating her tortoise.

"Mom, I don't want him to be too bumpy. I don't want to glue on the lentils."

We talked about how tortoises can be different. We don't all need to be the same.


Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"His name is Dusty."
 

Mother Goose Time provided all the necessary materials (other than scissors and crayons). This makes my life so much easier! Thank you, Mother Goose Time.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"His name is Dusty."
Pet Tortoise Craft by Mother Goose Time

Here is a photograph of the Pet Tortoise Craft instructions sheet.

Each time we have a craft, Mother Goose Time provides an instructions sheet with all the necessary materials.

After we did this activity, she naturally asked this question...

"Mom, what's the difference between a tortoise and a turtle?"

So, I got out the Mother Goose Time photograph that showed both a tortoise and a turtle with an explanation of exactly how they are different.

 

We read and discussed each difference. The beautiful photographs really helped her understand. I love this page. It made it really easy for her to understand. She then started to remember when she saw a real tortoise and real sea turtle.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
"Remember when we saw a real sea turtle?"

The little picture cards were an additional, helpful tool to help her visually see the differences between a tortoise and a turtle.



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
I could see in her eyes, that she was really beginning to understand the difference.
That was fun for us.

We love Mother Goose Time! Thank you!

Mommy Reflection As the Year Comes to a Close

Next year, she will begin Kindergarten. As I am reflecting on the year, I cannot bear to not have Mother Goose Time in her life anymore. Everyday, we enjoyed this special time. Even her older 3rd grade sister loved taking a break from her studies and actually learning while doing these fun activities. My year contract with Mother Goose Time is coming to a close, but I will definitely find a way to include Mother Goose Time as part of her Kindergarten experience. As a former Kindergarten teacher, and now a homeschooling mom, I definitely see much that can still be learned while using Mother Goose Time in Kindergarten. My hope is that eventually Mother Goose will create Kindergarten add-ons or a complementary Kindergarten curriculum. I believe a lot of what they offer can be differentiated for all elementary grades. One thing I love about Mother Goose Time is how they combine science and art, like in the pet tortoise craft. These kinds of activities are useful for older elementary-age children, too.

On the same day that Tracy at Mother Goose Time emailed me and let me know that the year is almost over... Only one more box, Bees and Butterflies, my preschool-age daughter rode a bike with training wheels. My baby no longer rides on the back of my bike. I felt a sense of loss. Both of my little girls are growing up so quickly. It just reminds me to treasure everyday.

Speaking of treasuring everyday...

I am so appreciative that Mother Goose Time focused on Food and Fitness last month. All the focus on that really made me think about mommy-self-care. With the encouragement of friends and our homeschool group moms, I decided to go get a blood test and I found out that I was anemic, deficient in iron, vitamin D3, calcium, magnesium and B vitamins! Wow, no wonder why I was so exhausted. I could not figure out why I had such horrible, painful muscle spasms and facial twitching. I am so thankful to say that I feel 100% better now. Now that I am taking all of those vitamins my energy is back. I do feel thankful, but looking back I wish I had known sooner. I went through a lot of pain and exhaustion over the past year just from the painful muscle cramps. As I really think about this, I just want to encourage everyone reading this to get your blood checked. Find out what vitamins and minerals are lacking in your bodies. I need to remember to treat myself as good as I treat my children.... I want to live a long time, so I can take good care of them and have fun. I'm sure you feel the same way, so be sure to check with your doctor and find out what your body needs. I took my multi-vitamin everyday, and it wasn't enough. Also, I wore so much sunscreen, I was deficient in D3.

For next year, I'm considering continuing with Mother Goose Time Preschool curriculum and enrolling her at www.SetonHome.com, because Seton has Kindergarten workbooks with their curriculum. Doing both will give her plenty of learning, while still feeling the joy of play. Her older sister is enrolled at Seton and the program worlds really well for us.

Here are some Free Preschool Printables for You.

Free Childcare Marketing Toolkit for March 2016http://info.mothergoosetime.com/grow-your-preschool-business

Animal-Theme Nametag [Free!] Downloadablehttp://info.mothergoosetime.com/januarymylittlejournalgiveaway

4 [Free!] Activities & Storytime Props to Accompany the Aesop's Fables Storybookhttp://info.mothergoosetime.com/happy-national-tell-a-fairy-tale-day-0

One Full [Free!] Day From the Experience God Christian Preschool Program
Experience God sample link:http://info.mothergoosetime.com/experiencegodsample

One Full [Free!] Day From the Mother Goose Time Teacher's Guide
Free Sample link:http://info.mothergoosetime.com/one-full-free-day-of-mother-goose-time-preschool-curriculum

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mother Goose Time - Adventures in February, Food and Fitness

Photo Copyright
Caroline Brooke

This month was full of fun and adventures in homeschooling with the girls. Thank God for Mother Goose Time. They sent the perfect box for this month because it helped us all get back to making healthy choices after all the unhealthy choices we made during the holidays.

February, Food and Fitness Theme

The girls learned about how to create a healthy plate, exercise and how important it is to get a good sleep each night. Below, you can see our monthly topic web for February and what the topic was for each day. We also made check-up appointments with our doctors and got lots of exercise. We had a lot of fun exercising together this month.

Fun Food Craft and Play Activities

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Learning about Food Groups with Mother Goose Time.

The girls learned about making healthy choices. You can see our beautiful Mother Goose Time poster below. Our daughters are lactose intolerant, so we talked about ways we can get protein. We also talked about how important it is to eat healthy everyday. It was so cute at dinner tonight, because I just realized our youngest daughter was talking about eating all different types of food everyday with her dad during dinner tonight.

 

 

 

 

Here are two of the girls' favorite food study crafts:

• Making pizza, which is technically not all that healthy if you make it like people normally do.
• Making and playing lemonade stand.

Mother Goose Time Pizza Craft

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Mom, take the picture when I say, "I love pizza".
Pizza Craft by 4-year-old

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
No craft is complete unless she gets her little Blue Bear character in there somewhere. He's a character she just made up and has dreams about... Very detailed dreams about space travel and flying in airplanes. It's so interesting.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Pizza Craft by 8-year-old

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Mother Goose Time sent us these adorable boxes for their pizza crafts.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
These pizzas have been used several times, as they like to use them to play with
their stuffed animals and American Girl dolls.

Lemonade Stand Craft

This adorable Mother Goose Time Craft came with the pop out, foldable lemonade stand, money, open/closed signs and cups. We made our own sign with an arrow, to attract customers.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Making a lemonade sign with an arrow.

Rudolph did pretty well. Take a look at the line in the pictures below.

She completely set up the sale and lined up the animals. As each animal paid, she stuffed each cup with either a Kleenex or pieces of fabric, so she could pretend they had a full cup.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Using a piece of a fleece blanket for pretend rainbow juice.

 "Mom, it's a party!"

She throws her balloon in the air.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
(You can see a Christmas house/candy display. We got that at CVS for free after Christmas last year.
We are going to make it into a doll house.)

 Fun Fitness

Of course, jumping on the trampoline is a lot more fun in your pajamas, right? On day 12, our topic was "jump", so they jumped on the trampoline in their pajamas for exercise that day, and pretty much every other day after breakfast. Of course, that's a great stress release for all the 3rd grade work our oldest daughter has to do everyday.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

We also went for lots of walks/run and bike rides.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

We even exercised at church.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Taking more bike rides with dad was fun.


Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke



Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
On the left there is a green/blue planet, then a rainbow (with no rain) in the center, and the sun is on the right.
Random observation. :)

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Of course, Krav Maga is a great way to get exercise.

We even took a field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. That was actually great exercise with all the walking around, too. That also gave the girls lots of exercise for their minds. Because we went with our homeschool group, it was only $27 for all three of us, including the 4D turtle movie.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
About to relax and watch a 4D movie about turtles at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Rest

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke
Meeting Meredith Andrews at Saddleback Church.

On the way home from the aquarium trip, the girls listened to their CD from Meredith Andrews and fell asleep. "Rest" was our topic to study on day twenty.

So, the girls made little forts out of blankets in the backyard with their puppies.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 Yes, and the caterpillars got rest, too.

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Sweet dreams, February...

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Okay, they are asleep now...

 

Their little hearts dreaming of rainbows, unicorns and butterflies...

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

 

Mommy Reflection

 

Here (below) are the prefect Mother Goose Time books and crafts to go along with the aquarium field trip. It just reminds me that even though we try to plan, we need to be open to flexibility... Like this really nice field trip with our homeschool group that went better with our ocean theme month, but really who cares. Flexibility with positivity is important.

 

 

This month also reminded me to take better care of myself. Because food and fitness was our February topic, it made me focus on changes for the better for myself, too. I realized that I have to add mommy care to our homeschool routine, which is a new realization for me. Fortunately, our homeschool group mommies had shared lots of ideas about mommy-self-care.

 

 

 

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke

Photo Copyright Caroline Brooke