1. Get plenty of sleep
2. Eat right
3. Exercise every day
4. drink 6 – 8 glasses of water daily
5. Wash hands often, and use soap.

If your child has problems sleeping, staying asleep, or sleeping in his own bed, then you may wish to read Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child, or The No-Cry Sleep Solution. Preschool age children need 12- 14 hours of sleep daily. Lack of sleep can cause many problems besides drowsiness. It can cause depression, clumsiness, anxiety, irritability, ADHD, memory loss, tantrums, and problems getting along with others. Also, if your child isn’t getting enough sleep, there’s a good chance you aren’t, either.

The rules for eating right haven’t changed much in years. We now have a “food pyramid” instead of the “Square Meal” that I learned in school, to show that we should eat less meats and dairy products, and more fresh fruits, vegetables, and wholesome grains. When you shop, it’s best to shop the periphery of the store, and skip the middle aisles as much as possible. Buy raw fruits and vegetables, meats, seeds, nuts, whole grain bread, and milk. Avoid pre-packaged foods, sugary foods, processed foods, artificial flavors and artificial colorings. Sugar can contribute to sleep disorders, hyperactivity, and there is almost an epidemic of juvenile diabetes today.

Exercise is very important, but most little children don’t have a problem getting enough activity in their day. They are naturally busy. If your child seems too active inside, then make sure he or she gets plenty of time outside to run, jump, hop, climb, crawl, swing, slide, dig, scream, and wiggle. You can teach him the difference between “inside voice” and “outside voice”. Outside it is okay to be loud. Inside, we need to be quieter. If you are looking for something new for your child’s outdoor play, think “bounce”. You can get either a small trampoline for under $150, or a hopper ball for under $20.

Doctors always tell us to get enough sleep, eat right, and drink plenty of water, but few of us do. Did you know that healthy urine isn’t supposed to be yellow? It should be very pale yellow, almost clear. That’s when you are consuming enough water. The darker it is in color, the more dehydrated you are. Get yourself and your child a water bottle, and fill it often. Start a chart for how much each of you are drinking. You can make a simple graph with your child, introducing him to this math concept.

Have you ever heard the expression “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”? A recent study has concluded that clean smells actually promote moral behavior! On a smaller scale, if your child bathes regularly, washes his hair, brushes teeth, washes hands, and wears clean clothes, he will be healthier than if he were allowed to live in filth. Most little children love bathtime. If your preschooler has entered a stage where he hates his bath, or fears it, you may want to read Bath Time Blues.

Finally, I have included a new section in the lesson plans for pencil and paper type preschool activities. If your child is not yet ready for this, then just ignore it. Otherwise, I will include links to specific worksheets you can print off, or else most grocery stores sell preschool workbooks near the checkout. These worksheets were taken from www.sproutonline.com, www.first-school.ws, and www.kidzone.ws .

All of the recommended books can be found here, if you do not find them, or a suitable substitute, at your public library.

Enjoy this week! And take pictures. I’d love to post some of them here.

Worksheet 1, worksheet 2, worksheet 3, worksheet 4, worksheet 5.

Health Week Lesson Plans

Photo Credits:
Sleep:http://www.flickr.com/photos/iandeth/ / CC BY 2.0
Exercise:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobikefed/ / CC BY 2.0

When the weather turns cold, rain changes to snow. Sometimes snow is wet and sloppy, sometimes it is dry and powdery. We like to play in snow, making snow angels or snow men. When snow melts, it turns back into water. We wear extra clothing to keep warm in winter. Polar bear and penguins are animals that live in cold areas. No two snowflakes are exactly alike. Water freezes to make ice. Ice melts to make water.

If you live where it snows in the winter, you have a wonderful opportunity to teach your child! Winter can mean being stuck inside for months on end, depressed by the lack of sunlight, chapped hands, cracked lips, miserable, cantankerous children, OR… it can mean hot chocolate, snowball fights, adorable snowmen, ruddy cheeks, rosy lips, sparkling eyes, and cozy fires. It’s your choice. Love where you are, and live life to it’s fullest.

Winter isn’t fun when you’re cold. Our parents and grandparents knew about long underwear. Now, no one wears them. We prefer to crank up the thermostat and complain about high heating bills. Dress warmly. Dress your child warmly. Wear long johns around the house, and slippers or shoes instead of going barefoot. Keep the thermostat between 65 and 68 – you’ll save money and do your bit for the environment, as well.

When you send your child outside, always dress him completely. It doesn’t matter if you’re just running to the store for a gallon of milk. You never know when you might be stuck in traffic, or experience car trouble. A small child can suffer hypothermia very quickly. The American Academy of Pediatrics advices to dress children in one more layer than you as an adult would wear. This may include:

• thermal long johns
• turtlenecks
• one or two shirts
• pants
• sweater
• coat
• warm socks
• boots
• gloves or mittens
• hat

This week, you and your child will make snowmen, stage a snowball fight, go sledding down a small hill, and roast marshmallows over a campfire at the park. Enjoy the season! It will all be over soon enough.

If you’re new to this blog, you may wish to read:
Using the lesson plans
Calendar Activities
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity

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Snow and Ice Week Lesson Plans

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Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreweick/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/ / CC BY 2.0

• Christmas is Jesus’ birthday!
• Each week we light a new candle on the advent wreathe, as we count down the days until Christmas.
• There are many things we can do to get ready for this special holiday.
• Some people pray and fast.
• Some people decorate their homes with lights, greenery, ribbons, and more.
• Some people are very poor, and cannot afford gifts. We remember them at this time.
• Many people give gifts to each other, just as the Wise Men gave gifts to Baby Jesus.

There may be more that you would like to teach your young child, depending on your religious affiliation. Do you want to include Santa Clause in your family traditions? Would you like to help your child buy a gift to donate to a poor family, or volunteer at a soup kitchen? What about singing carols at a nursing home, or for an elderly church member?

Kids can get so hyped up, that their behavior is atrocious this time of year. Starting in October, they were excited for Halloween. As soon as that ended, there was Thanksgiving, and even before the turkey was done baking, Christmas lights were up and carols playing on the radio. Is it any wonder that our normally sweet-natured little one becomes a greedy little brat every time he sees a man in a Santa suit?

There is much you can do to try to tone this down. Help your child focus on giving, rather than the toys he’s going to get. Help him sort through his toys in preparation for Christmas, cleaning out the ones that he no longer needs. Throw away broken toys, or repair and donate them if possible.

This week you’ll help your child make an “Advent” chain – add as many links in the paper chain as there are days left until Christmas. Then, every morning, tear off one more chain. Help him count the remaining chains (good math activity). When the last chain is torn, it will be Christmas. You could make the last chain a special color – white, perhaps, and all the others alternating red and green.

Many families won’t put the Christ Child in the Nativity set until Christmas Eve. They’ll get the set out, dust it off, and set it up, but have the statues of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and wise men all looking at an empty manger. This, too, can help the child understand the concept of advent – of waiting for the coming of Our Lord.

Have fun this week! Your child will make some pretty decorations for the house. Together, you’ll bake Christmas cookies, and maybe you’ll even put up your tree, if you haven’t already. Send in a picture to share! We’d all love to see the pretty things your child has made.

Advent Lesson Plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lesson plans can be found at your local library, or in my store.

For further reading:
Building Family through Tradition
Children in Church
Working with the Lesson Plans

Photo Credits:
Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_benedetti/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/way2go/ / CC BY 2.0

Your child can learn: Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful. Today many people celebrate it by eating a big dinner with friends and family. Many families eat turkey, vegetables, and pumpkin pie. Many years ago, the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians celebrated a thanksgiving feast together. The pilgrims were thankful for the help of the Wampanoag, and their good friend Squanto, a Patuxet Indian, who gave them seeds and taught them how to plant them.

If you are traveling, you may not be able to do all the activities, but print them off and bring them with you, along with some materials for the craft projects. Your child, and any nieces and nephews at the family gathering, may enjoy the activities. Be flexible, but at the same time, try to stick as closely to your child’s routine as possible. If you don’t, temper tantrums and tears may be the only thing anyone remembers.

Be careful not to perpetuate misleading stereotypes. Not all Indians lived in wigwams, wore buckskin, or carried their babies in cradleboards. If you wish to teach your child about American Indians, it is better to teach about several different tribes and how their customs varied, than to teach “All American Indians are “this”.

One thing I discovered during my research before writing this lesson or this blog, is that the term “Native American” is no longer considered politically correct. It isn’t exactly “wrong” but it is considered insulting by many of the American Indian peoples. Native American is a generic term that encompasses not only all of the North American tribes, but also the people of the American Samoas, the original Hawaiians, the Inuits, the Aleuts, and those incorrectly labeled “Eskimos” -the Upiks and Inupiats. I read that the North American Indians prefer to be called “American Indian”.

I also learned that Columbus did not label them “Indian” because he thought he’d reached India! That was a myth perpetuated by our public schools. Europe didn’t call India “India” until several hundred years AFTER Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Columbus would have called India “Hindustan”. He knew he was in a new land, and he called the native peoples he met “En Dios” – which translates as “In with God”.

For more information, visit
American Indian Culture
Teaching young children about Native Americans

If you are new to this website, you may wish to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

Thanks for visiting, and I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Lesson Plans: Thanksgiving!

All of the books recomended in this week’s lessons can be found at your library, or in my store.

Photo Credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairity/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/ / CC BY 2.0

• A woods or forest is an area with lots of trees and bushes. It often has small rivers of water or a pond.
• Animals who live in the woods are called woodland animals.
• The most common woodland animals are rabbits, skunks, squirrels, deer, foxes, raccoons, opossums, chipmunks, turtles, bears, and birds.
• Small forest animals are frightened by loud noises and people.
• We should not pollute ponds and streams, as this hurts the animals who live there.
• We can sometimes see woodland animals if we are very quiet when we walk in the woods.

We see squirrels a lot in the fall, and are amused by their industry, as they scurry around gathering nuts. Take a walk with your child to look for squirrels and acorns. Watch one for a while, and see if he eats the acorn, or carries it away to a tree. Tell your child how when winter comes, the squirrel will know where he buried his nuts (some of them, anyway!) and he’ll be able to eat them.

This would be a great week to get a pet hamster or gerbil. Visit the pet store and select the cage and supplies necessary. These furry little animals are fun to watch and easy to care for.

I’ve included a few paper worksheets this week. These are pages I found elsewhere on the web, that are free to use. One is a squirrel with an acorn and the letter A to trace. Some children may be ready for these types of “school” worksheets. I’m not a big fan of worksheets, and consider them “busy sheets”. But used in moderation, they can serve a purpose. If your child is not ready for pencil and paper activities, just ignore them.

One day this week your child will make a simple bird feeder. If you do start to feed the wild birds this fall, then you should feel obligated to feed them throughout the winter, or they may starve. Most birds will fly south for the winter where food is more plentiful, but if you feed them, then you may encourage more of them to stick around. I have heard that providing fresh water through the winter is just as important, but I’ve often wondered if this is a marketing trick. After all, wild birds survived on their own long before commercial de-icers were available.

Finally, you’ll end the week with reading Laura Numeroff’s popular book, “If you give a mouse a cookie”. That day you and your child can make a batch of your favorite cookies, and eat them with a glass of milk. Maybe you’ll even add a straw.

I hope you have fun with this! Post your comments, with a picture of your child’s art work. I’d love to see them.

Squirrels and Woodland Animals Lesson Plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lessons can be found at your local library, or in my store.

If you are new to this site, you may want to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

Photo Credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillesgonthier/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barefoot-mama/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Downloadable pages:
Squirrel dot-to-dot picture
Squirrel coloring page
Squirrel pattern

• fall is the season after summer. Autumn is another word for fall.
• Daylight hours become shorter. Nighttime hours become longer.
• The weather becomes cooler. It may be time to put away shorts and sandals, and wear long pants, and sweaters.
• Frost may appear at night or early morning.
• Leaves begin to change colors.
• Leaves and nuts begin to fall to the ground.
• Grass turns brown and dies out.
• Some birds and butterflies fly south for the winter.
• Some animals get ready for winter, by gathering nuts or storing food in their homes.
• Some animals grow thicker coats to help them stay warm
• Farmers harvest many foods and sow winter crops

Repeated in this lesson are directions for making a simple lotto game. Lotto is very similar to bingo, but uses pictures in place of numbers. Children learn to match pictures, making a one-to-one correspondence. It is a great game for the young child, the rules are simple. You can keep the child interested by making multiple lotto games. Use fall stickers to make an autumn lotto. Make a Christmas lotto with Santa, reindeer, holly, and wreath stickers. Make a baby animals lotto, or favorite Disney characters lotto. If you can find it pictured in stickers, you can make a game from it. For the older child, you could use alphabet letters or musical notes for the lotto. There is a lovely animal lotto game for sale in the store.

The week activities will start with a nature walk. Stroll around your neighborhood or take a trip to a nearby park. Gather colored leaves, nuts, acorns, seeds, milkweed, or other signs of autumn. You’ll need the leaves, seeds, and twigs for some of the craft projects. Take a bag with you on the hike to carry home your child’s treasures. If you feed the ducks at the park, remember that white bread is NOT nutritious and can harm the ducks. You can buy whole corn or grain for them from a feed mill for probably less than a loaf of bread. Check with your local ordinances though. In some areas, it may be illegal to feed the ducks.

The week ends then with a return trip to the apple orchard. If you did “A is for Apple” earlier, then your child visited the apple orchard this summer. Now you can point out that the apples have turned red (or yellow), although a few green ones might remain. Some apples have fallen to the ground already. Some leaves fall, too. Don’t forget to return to the apple orchard in the winter, to see the bare branches.

Have a great time with your child. And don’t forget to take lots of pictures for your memory album.

F is for Fall lesson plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lessons can be found at your local library, or in my store.

If you are new to this site, you may want to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

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Photo credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahnev/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle:http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbybatchelder/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnzy/ / CC BY 2.0