Crafts: Bear Painting

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Painting is a favorite pastime for our children. So, I like to find new and creative ways to allow them to paint. From using different materials as brushes like painting with leaves to using handprints, there are many fun ways to paint. We've also experimented with watercolors and using q-tips to paint, too! 

For this painting project, I wanted our children to focus on the background and not the animal they would include in the painting. So, we used a clipart drawing of a bear when the entire painting was completed and dry. 

Materials 

• Paint and Kwik Stix Paint
• Different types of paintbrushes
• Construction paper of varying colors 
• Foam shapes 
• Glue 
• Scissors 

Steps 

1. Gather your materials. 

2. Decide what color construction paper you and your children wish to use. Do you want to create a nighttime picture, a picture of a polar bear, or one in the forest? 

3. After choosing a piece of construction paper, pick what colors you want to use. Then start to paint your picture. 

4. After the picture dries, put on foam shapes and glue on your bear. 

5. Your picture is ready to hang! 

More Painting 

If you are getting ready to prepare for winter studies in your homeschool, I've shared a very cute book and a painting craft previously.  In Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change, your children will see numerous woodland animals. Pick one of the animals in the story and create a painting highlighting the change in the season.

Another fun way to incorporate painting into your homeschool lessons is to paint on a different medium. When we were reading Black Bird, Yellow Sun, we created a picture of the sun and a black bird using beans. After the beans were dry (we glued them on the paper), we painted the beans.

Looking for More Painting Lessons and Courses? 

Why not take a look at SchoolhouseTeachers.com? They offer over 400 courses, including many art courses. With so many schools limiting their electives, including art, homeschool families have the chance to explore art in a great number of ways. They can learn new techniques, study famous artists through history, and explore different mediums such as sculpture, painting, watercolor, and more. As I look through their course offerings, there are currently 19 art-related courses, including: 

• A Century of Art
• Achieving Art Success with ArtAchieve 
• All About Art
• Art & History: Interconnected 
• Art: The Timeless Treasure 
• Art Tips with Jan Bower
• Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business
• Discovering Art History
• Drawing in Pen and Ink
• Drawing with Realism
• Elementary Art 
• Everyday Easels
• Exploring the World of Art
• Inkscape Online Adventure
• Learning About Art
• Let's Do Art Outside
• Preschool: Arts, Crafts, & Music
• Studio Art for Teens 

Using Classics to Teach About God: A Review of Little Pilgrim's Big Journey

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Teaching our children about God is an important part of our homeschool day. While there are complete curriculums available, sometimes it is nice to include a story that will allow us to spend more time together. Little Pilgrim's Big Journey, published by Lithos Kids Press, would make a wonderful addition to your read-aloud time for your preschooler, kindergartener, or first grader. We are currently using this beautiful hardcover book and the coloring book during our homeschool lessons. 

About the Book 

Little Pilgrim's Big Journey is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress fully illustrated and adapted for the next generation by Tyler Van Halteren with illustrations by Beatriz Mello. This hardcover book is 223 pages long with thick, glossy pages and a red ribbon to mark your place. There is a lovely place to dedicate the book to your own little pilgrim, a brief introduction to the life of John Bunyan, and an explanation of an allegory. All the people and places in Little Pilgrim's Big Journey are meant to teach readers important lessons. To help readers – both children and parents – understand the allegory, there are chapter summaries as well as questions at the end of the book. 

If you have never read Pilgrim's Progress, I recommend you set aside time to do so. For your younger children, Little Pilgrim's Big Journey will provide an excellent introduction to this wonderful allegory by John Bunyan. Children will read of Christian as he leaves the city of Destruction carrying a huge burden, receives advice from the Evangelist and Good-Will, travels the narrow path, journeys through the Valley of Humiliation, meets other pilgrims, and, in the end, he is welcomed by the King in the Celestial City. 

"Believe the King's Word...Follow the King's Path...Seek the King's City" 

Our Thoughts 

The story is written and adapted in such a way as to make it a lovely read-aloud. Reading Little Pilgrim's Big Journey makes for a nice break from our homeschool lessons as well as enjoyable bedtime reading. I have snuggled up on the sofa to read with both our first grader and our third grader. They are both intrigued by the story and while our third grader more easily answers the questions, our first grader has brought up the story outside our reading time. I think the story is reaching both of them and helping them better understand God. 

In addition to Little Pilgrim's Big Journey, Timberdoodle also provided us with a copy of the coloring book to review. The beautiful illustrations are repeated as black-and-white line drawings for children and adults to color. One could copy the colors from the hardcover book or you could pick your own color scheme to create original pictures. Our first grader and I have been coloring a page during her homeschool studies. It is nice to sit and discuss the events depicted in the coloring book as they relate to Little Pilgrim's Big Journey. The quality of the pages in the coloring book is thick and easy to color upon. We have only used colored pencils for our pictures so far and the pages, so I am not sure if markers would bleed through or not.

I think my favorite part of Little Pilgrim's Big Journey is how it has brought our children and me closer together during our homeschool time. I really appreciate the chapter summaries, which allow me to review the point and reason behind each chapter. And the questions that help one dig deeper into the allegory are a wonderful blessing. Sometimes as parents, we need that extra bit of help to bring the message home to our children. 

Little Pilgrim's Big Journey with its bright, colorful illustrations and the accompanying coloring book would be a welcome addition to any Christian home. It is a wonderful introduction to allegories for our young children, so not only will it help children on their journey with their faith but also in their language arts lessons.

Looking for more products from Timberdoodle? Be sure to read my review of Battle Sheep and Clumsy Thief Junior. 

Studying God's Creation from A to Z: A Review of My Father's World Kindergarten Curriculum

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the past several weeks, our daughter and I have been using the Christian homeschool kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World – God's Creation from A to Z – to learn about the world around us. We spent the first two weeks discussing the creation found in Genesis of the Bible and then moved on to studying different topics based upon the letters of the alphabet.

Before our kindergarten curriculum kit was mailed, I had the opportunity to speak with customer service to ensure that we would have everything we need in our kit. God's Creation from A to Z Deluxe Package incorporates everything you need for language arts, mathematics, Bible study, character development, and even science. My brief chat with customer service was wonderful and my kit arrived in the mail a short while later. My daughter was so excited to get started! It is always nice to connect with a company that is helpful and caring.

So many great books in this kit!

As we took out each book and material, our daughter wanted to read it and examine it. 

What Is the Focus of God's Creation from A to Z?

As you may have guessed, this kindergarten curriculum approaches a year-long study using the letters of the alphabet as well as the creation of the world. Your child will start with a two-week introduction talking about the first seven days in the Bible – creating their own picture book and poster to demonstrate the events and then move onto the weeks which focus upon the different letters.

Each day when studying about the creation, our daughter created a new page for her book.

The following 26 hands-on units are packed full of a variety of lessons, stories, and ideas to help you teach your kindergartener about the world around them. The step-by-step instructions make it very easy to implement the lesson plans.

Some of the Topics Covered 

• Creation 
• Turtle
• Five senses 
• Dinosaurs 
• Goats (farm animals) 
• Christmas (two weeks set aside) 
• Penguins 
• Zebras (wild animals) 
• Frogs and Butterflies (to study life cycles) 
• Vegetables 
• Yellow (all colors) 
• Fruit of the Spirit 

For each new week, the curriculum is laid out in a chart in the spiral-bound Teacher's Manual. This provides an easy-at-a-glance overview of the different activities you and your child will be doing during the week. For example, in week 21, your child will learn about the letter K with kangaroo being the focus word. The Biblical Concept Flashcard for this week reads, "I am safe in God." Some of the activities as laid out in the opening page of the week include making a kangaroo pencil holder our of an empty juice can, finding the home of kangaroos on the globe, and reading Katy No-Pocket. You can check these off as you complete them.

I found great flexibility in using God's Creation from A to Z with our daughter. For some weeks, we completed many of the activities listed for reading, language arts, math, and science but for others, we skipped some of them including many of the snack ideas. But even though I didn't use everything as outlined, I love all the options that the curriculum provides. If your child is really interested in the moon, you can read additional books as suggested like Goodnight Moon, talk about gravity, make a model of the moon's surface, and even bake a moon cake. Each week comes with a variety of additional ideas to help parents fill out the week for their kindergartners.

Typical Week for Us - Look at Week 5: Leaf

Each day, I would present our daughter with the calendar and number chart to fill in. After this, we would move on to another activity as outlined in the Teacher Manual. One day, we collected leaves outside and traced them for painting and made leaf rubbings.

We also read the pages on the leaf in God's Amazing World and tried to match up the geometric shapes with the different leaves pictured. On another day, our daughter read A Tree is Nice to us and made a leaf-shaped badge with the Biblical Concept written on it: "I will live and grow in Jesus." We also used the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book's letter L page as well as built a three-dimensional structure with the rods that are part of the kit. During this week, we also listened to the song 'Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day' and read several verses from the New Testament from John 15, 1 John 5, and others. 

Putting It All Together 

For the first several weeks of using God's Creation from A to Z from My Father's World, parents are instructed to read For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley, which is included in the kit. This book provides a wonderful look at what education can be when it is based upon Christian teaching and understanding. There are practical advice and wonderful suggestions that will help homeschooling parents (both new ones and veterans) formulate a plan and method for homeschooling. And the advice for homeschooling parents does not stop there – included in the Teacher's Manual are encouragement and advice as well as thoughts from Marie, the author. How wonderful to read the reminder that in 1 Timothy 5:10 a woman's good deeds include "bringing up children." When it seems like parenting is a never-ending task, it is nice to be reminded it is an important and godly task.

There are so many wonderful components that are part of this kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World. Through the Teacher's Manual, it is very easy to incorporate the Cuisenaire rods, the student sheets, the classical CD, the many children's picture books, and the activities. During week 3, when we were studying the letter s and the sun, everything seemed to fit together so naturally and flow from one activity to the next. We spent time painting, reading, writing, listening to a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, and listening to the Nutcracker Suite. What a great assortment of activities for our daughter to experience! There was no guesswork for me as to what to do.

What Do We Think? 

Our daughter and I were amazed at the quality of God's Creation from A to Z kindergarten curriculum kit from the moment it arrived. I am still in awe each day when I take out our materials and prepare for the homeschool lessons for that day. There are so many wonderful resources and ideas provided for homeschooling parents. For example, I am gathering the materials for Week 8: Turtle and I am reminded of a poem from my own childhood (The Little Turtle). I love the snack suggestion of creating a turtle with bread and peanut butter as well as the pages in God's Amazing World on turtles. I am so glad that it teaches about a turtle's shell and skeleton as well as a brief introduction to a turtle's egg-laying practices.

I have really enjoyed reading For the Children's Sake. I feel like sometimes I could underline entire pages as I want to remember many points the author makes. I never really felt that my homeschool style was similar to that of Charlotte Mason but now I see that I share many of the same viewpoints as her through this introduction.

I am amazed at all the books being included in the deluxe package. What a joy to not have to worry about whether or not we own a certain book or if our small library has a copy (inter-library loan is not available right now). I can go to our bookshelf and pick out which one we need for the week. If you want to see a video of some of the books that were part of the kit, please check out my Instagram post.

One of the books I was really excited to see was the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book. We owned a small pack of the rods prior to receiving this kit and I was at a loss as to how to use them beyond counting. I love all the different ideas presented in the book. Our daughter can work on problem-solving like when it asks her to build the letter I using rods of all different colors or to build the letter I using only one color. She can also have fun as she builds the different shapes.

Our daughter couldn't wait to start using the rods and the book. 

Our daughter has really been enjoying God's Creation from A to Z. She loves the variety of activities. She was so excited to paint the sun (she painted three different ones in yellow, orange, and red) and to read the different books. Another thing she loves doing is reading the Biblical Concept Cards and hanging them on our door. We have also been hanging the badges she creates each week alongside them. They are great visual reminders – for everyone – of what she is learning and what we should all remember.

I would recommend God's Creation from A to Z to any homeschooling parent looking for a solid kindergarten curriculum for their child. The customer service was great and the package is fantastic. The student worksheets provide our daughter with the opportunity to practice her writing of numbers and letters as well as give her a chance to be creative when she is drawing her own animals, objects, and things that start with that week's letter. She practices her scissor skills and reading skills as well as learns new things about the world around her. This is a great homeschooling experience for young children just starting their formal educational journey.

Do You Want to Learn More?

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Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also had the opportunity to review products from My Father's World. Please be sure to read their reviews, too!

Crafts: R is for Redstone

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

For many years our family has enjoyed the game of Minecraft. Our oldest son first introduced us to the game when it was released for the Xbox 360 and now our two younger children play the game as well. It is great for fostering creativity and teamwork as everyone in the family can play in one world and work together to build elaborate towns, farms, and mines. We made multiple crafts including an Enderman-inspired letter E, mosaics based on characters in the game, and we had a special Minecraft Birthday Party for our younger son.

As much as I enjoy playing Minecraft, Redstone is not one of the materials I use beyond building Redstone lamps and minecart tracks. This doesn't mean we can't make a fun craft inspired by it in Minecraft.

Materials

• Construction paper 
• Letter R template 
• Crayons, markers, or paint (you will need paintbrushes if you choose to paint your project) 
• Dot paints or square sponges for paint 

Steps 

1. Prepare the letter R template.

2. Color the letter R gray (or paint it gray).

3. Glue onto construction paper.

4. Make red spots on the letter R. Try to make sure they are not too round as Minecraft is all about squares.

4. Display your letter R after it is dry.

Read Up On Redstone

In addition to this fun craft, there are other ways you can incorporate learning about Redstone into your homeschooling day. Look at one of the many books about the ore in Minecraft. Where can you find it? What are the uses of Redstone? 

In the Game 

If your children are old enough to play Minecraft, you can have them use Redstone in the actual game. They can design a trap using Redstone or create a lighthouse with a 'spinning' light. They can use a silk touch pick to pick up the ore and display it in a Minecraft Museum. 

Extra Craft Idea - Make a 3D Redstone Torch 

Gather together a paper towel roll, red tissue paper, and an electric tea light. After painting the paper towel roll shades of brown, cover the top with the red tissue paper. Place the electric tea light in the top of the Redstone torch if you want the torch active.

A Review of Focus on Fives from BJU Press Homeschool

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Our daughter has been eager to join in with the homeschooling studies of her older brothers ever since we started homeschooling. She wants to do the same activities as her six-year-old brother yet she is only just mastering some of the skills he already has acquired. When the opportunity to review BJU Press Focus on Fives presented itself, I jumped at it. I knew our daughter would be so excited to have a homeschooling program that was designed for her age and skill level. Because BJU Press Homeschool is the publisher, I knew I did not need to worry about any questionable content and that the material would be of high quality. This is excellent Christian Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum for families.

What Did We Receive?

We received in two separate boxes the Focus on Fives Subject Kit (fourth edition) which contains the following materials:

• Focus on Fives K5 Teacher's Edition: 6 separate spiral-bound books that outline the objectives, lessons, crafts, snack ideas, extended activities, and more. 

• Focus on Fives K5 Worktext: A full-color paperback book with pages that are easy to tear out. Each lesson seems to reference at least one page. The book is designed so that the pages will tear out easily. There is also a supplement section in the back of the book with a kindergarten diploma, lesson cutouts, and checkups. 

• Reading Books for K5: There are 34 paper books total that are landscape-oriented. The books progress from simple picture books with no text to books with increasingly challenging reading required.

• Phonics Practice for K5: This full-color workbook has a variety of exercises that align with the different lessons. For example, Lesson 103 has worksheets that focus upon 'wh' and asks your child to circle the pictures that begin with that sound. It also contains the Phonics Stories that you will need for some lessons. 
• K5 Phonics and Review Cards: You receive a stack of pre-cut cards. Some of these are meant to be taken home by children using this curriculum in a schooling setting to help them review.

• K5 Write Now! Handwriting: This book is printed in black and white with a paper cover. On some days, our daughter likes to color in the picture that is on the page.  

• K5 Phonics Flip Charts 
• Focus on Fives Teaching Visuals Flip Chart: This is a spiral-bound book. The pages can be removed or left in the book.

I have been able to keep everything in one of the two boxes in which everything was shipped by standing all the books upright within the box. I added a few envelopes to hold the materials as well as paperclips and rubber bands to hold all the cards together. 

How Are We Using Focus on Fives in our Homeschool? 

There are a total of 180 lessons spread across seven units in Focus on Fives and we are averaging about three-quarters to one-and-a-half lessons a day in our homeschool. On average, we have been completing a little bit more than one scheduled week's worth in one week.

The Teacher's Edition is written for use within a classroom but homeschool parents can easily adapt it in their own homes with one or two children. Everything is so very clear and detailed that—even if you are brand new to homeschooling and have never used a teacher's manual before—you should feel confident in using Focus on Five with your kindergartener. I started by reading through the six goals, the Biblical worldview themes, examining the lesson features, going over the instructional materials, the goals of the reading books and the reading book lesson features, and the lesson plan overview. This information is all presented in the introduction prior to the first lesson plan. (There is also additional information in the introduction that I skimmed over because they did not apply to me since I am using Focus on Fives in my homeschool and not in a classroom with learners of different abilities.)

To prepare, I went through and pulled the necessary pages from the Worktext, Phonics Practice, and Write Now! workbooks and paperclipped them with the lessons in the Teacher's Edition along with any Phonics Charts and Cards that were necessary. For those lessons where I wanted to incorporate materials from the back of the Teacher's Edition (instructional materials and creative writing sheets that you will need to copy for your child), I copied them and placed them with the lessons, too.

One of the activities that requires you to photocopy needed pages from the back of the Teacher's Guide.

Our daughter had to match the objects to the letter that they start with on the dalmatian. 

There are so many options for you to make the lessons fit the needs of your children!

I think the easiest way to demonstrate how Focus on Fives works – especially in our homeschool – is to walk you through one lesson, Lesson 10: Surprise! 

At the start of the lesson, we reviewed previous information that we talked about, including the words "it" and "I" and the letters "i" and "t". We then used the Worktext worksheets which were Review for You pages.

This lesson also included the reading of the second book: Surprise! Before reading the book, I asked our daughter the questions written in the Teacher's Edition (What do you see? What do you think the surprise will be?) and then we progressed into the book. There are seven pages in the Teacher's Edition with questions to ask during the reading of the book along with comprehension questions. (I love how the questions, answers, and pages from the book are directly printed in the Teacher's Edition.)

The student's book here is laid on top of the Teacher's Edition.

The final activity for this lesson that we completed was the page from the Write Now! workbook where our daughter colored a picture of a bird and wrote the word "it". There are additional activities including a snack suggestion and an arts and crafts activity.

So how long does each lesson take? Everything depends on how many of the various activities you include in each lesson. To maintain our daughter's attention I usually split each lesson into more than one part throughout the day. We may spend 20 to 30 minutes at a time. For example, we may complete one worksheet from the Worktext book and then go over different words that start with the letter 's'. If I have everything set up, we may finish up with a craft. Later in the day (even after dinner on a few occasions), we may complete the writing exercise from the Write Now! workbook. Sometimes, I even save those for the next day.

What Did We Think? 

We have the had the chance to really start a formal homeschool education with our daughter. Up till this point she has been using various materials as a preschooler but not set curriculum. I think that BJU Press Focus on Fives has been a fantastic resource to introduce her to more formal homeschooling. It allows us flexibility to meet her needs – she loves arts and crafts, to move around during her homeschooling, to work while sitting on the couch with me rather than at a table, and to be physically active while she learns.

We have been hanging up some of her artwork and lesson pages on the wall along with our social studies materials.

The flexibility of using this curriculum allows our daughter to complete work while sitting in my lap.

Our daughter really couldn't decide on a favorite part of the lessons. She loves having the books that she could read and share with the rest of the family. Being able to write her name on them when she completed them was a great bonus. The extended activities that allowed her to be creative and get up and move were also important to her as she loves art projects and being physically active. I love that she gets a variety of activities in each lesson that helps build her writing and reading skills while teaching her about the world around her.

Even with simple worksheets, she can be creative and color the spaces with the letter 'i' in whatever manner she chooses.

What Do We Have to Look Forward To? 

One of the things I am looking forward to is being able to take our family to visit some of the places we are learning about in Focus on Fives such as a fire station, post office, police station, and more. If this were a normal homeschooling season, we would have planned a trip to visit the places during each appropriate week but we will have to save those trips for the future.

I am really looking forward to using Focus on Fives for the rest of the homeschool year with our daughter. Just flipping through Teacher's Editions, I can see so many awesome lessons. In Unit 2, we will discuss the parts of the Bible, about libraries, nursery rhymes, and more about books and writing. In Unit 3, our daughter and I will talk about animals in the Bible (like sheep, donkeys, and lions), contrast the differences between a family farm and a commercial farm, and talk about how to take care of pets. In Units 4 and 5, we will study places, r-blends, how God answers prayers, the Pledge of Allegiance, and short and long i, o, and u words. A look at the Untied States White House is one of the many lessons in Unit 6. Finally, Unit 7 contains a review as well as lessons for various Holidays. I discovered the Easter lesson right before Easter so we were able to include one of the activities. (You can see the Angel in front of the empty tomb worksheet in the display of various projects from Focus on Fives in one of the above photographs.) I look forward to completing the Memorial Day lessons at the end of May.

In the near future, I will be greatly anticipating the next set of lessons we will be working on after finishing up the week about Postal Workers. It was fun to talk about the history of the postal service and teach our daughter about how to address envelopes. But I think the final week of Unit 1 will be very important, too. We will take a look at ways to keep healthy, ways to stay healthy, and talk about how to distinguish fantasy from realistic fiction along with many other language arts activities.

Do I recommend the BJU Press Five on Fives curriculum? YES! I have been really pleased with the entire package and love the flexibility it is affording us in our homeschool. I can see our daughter growing as a new homeschool student who is studying kindergarten at home.

What else will be coming? If you want to incorporate videos into your lesson, you only have to wait till the summer for the opportunity. There will be the opportunity to choose Focus on Fives Online with Books on July 1, 2020. There are 160 videos (lessons are 60 minutes in length) taught by Mrs. Rebekah Rulapaugh. If you want to see a sample, you can view one on the BJU Press Homeschool site.

Would You Like to Know More?

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Our daughter wasn't the only child reviewing Focus on Fives from the Homeschool Review Crew. Please be sure to check out the other reviews!