Littles Learning Link Up: August 23, 2016- Finishing Up Our Summer Session with Abraham Lincoln and Butterflies

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

Last week was our last week of our summer session. We didn't quite get everything completed, mainly due to an unplanned trip to the dentist last Friday that took all day. So, I think I will just finish reading the books I have out of the library that have to do with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War during our two week break, but we won't be doing any more activities. We did have fun learning about how tall Abraham Lincoln was, with and without his hat. And did you know President Lincoln actually used his tall hat to hold important papers so he wouldn't forget things? This was an interesting little bit of historical trivia I never knew.

Of course, we were finishing up our Butterfly unit. Our butterflies emerged and we observed them for a while, feeding the sugar water on paper towels and watermelon. Unfortunately, 3 of them died, so we only got to release 2.

You can see all the pictures I shared of our Butterflies in last week's Wordless Wednesday post.

We have been working on the butterfly unit papers I printed out from Christian Homeschool Hub Download Club (CHSH-Teach.com), which is one of our review products. 

And we began working on our Butterfly Life Cycle Craft that is scheduled in the My Father's World curriculum. All of the stages of the life cycle are created using egg cartons, except for the eggs on the leaf. The children all cut out their own leaves and I punched out some white paper circles to use as eggs.

Then they painted a 6 cup strip of the egg carton for a caterpillar.

And we tied two 3-cup sections together to create a chrysalis, which they painted brown.

We still need to finish the butterflies. I will try to remember to share pictures of the completed life cycle next week.

Let's take a look at that review schedule:

Last week I posted the reviews for Foreign Languages for Kids By Kids and the Statue of Liberty FlipStir Puzzle from Enlivenze LCC. This week I will be posting the reviews for Jolly Literacy's Phonics and Grammar, and Jolly Literacy's Can Do Cubes which Harold and Hannah have been using.

To round up August, I will be posting the review for Homeschool Scholastics: WAY Comes Home Kit next week.  Then in September I will be sharing the reviews for Apologia: Exploring Creation With Astronomy, Getting Started With French from Armfield Academic Press, and Christian Homeschool Hub's Download Club.

A few somethings I would like to share with you:

I can't believe fall is just around the corner. I know some have already started school and others (like us) will be starting shortly. Today I would like to share a couple of my early fall round up from last year.

First is the Back to School Round Up featuring a collection of Free Printables and tips for getting your homeschool year off to a great start and keeping it going strong.

One of the first things I think of in early fall is apples. We used to be so excited for the opening of the local cider mill and the donuts they sell. And of course, there is that traditional thought of giving an apple to your teacher. So, last year I posted my Apple Fun Round Up with over 70 apple themed activities, crafts, and recipes.

And finally, don't miss this month's Guest Post: Teaching Toddlers Self-Help Skills (includes a free printable).

I am lining up my guest posts for the new year. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions.

Don't miss my review and giveaway for this fun children's book:

The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 18 wonderful posts linked up! 

I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts

Please don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's Randomly Selected Post is:

Tara from Homeschool Preschool shared How to Teach Preschoolers With Simon Says.

Now For This Week's Top Clicked-On Post:

Sarah from Adventures of Our Family shared Cardboard Box Play Kitchen.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday: August 17, 2016 (w/linky): Butterflies!

I walked into the dining room Thursday morning and heard a fluttering noise coming from the butterfly garden habitat!

Our butterflies had emerged!

We stopped at the store for some watermelon, as I had read they like it. Seems that is true.

I could swear those two on the bottom right were getting really friendly, though they were only a day old.

Sadly we found one dead the next day. After I pulled it out, I noticed part of the wing was almost broken off. I remembered that two of them kept flying into each other. Wondered if that was what killed it.

Then we found one more, and then another dead.

So we decided it was time to let them go, even though they only emerged 5 days ago.

Only two live butterflies left to set free into the great big world.

Tabitha was able to get one on her finger. Unfortunately, while I was watching her with that one, the other flew away.

This one flew around the yard and then landed in the grass.

Amelia was thrilled that she got a chance to hold one. She had been devastated that the other flew away so fast.

Unfortunately, Harold never did get a chance. Poor boy.

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Littles Learning Link Up: October 6, 2015 A Quick Update (L:Leaf and Jamestown)

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child.

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We had moved on in both our Kindergarten and Adventures lessons.

Hannah and Harold were learning about leaves and plants in our L:Leaf unit. The older girls were focusing on the Jamestown colony and Captain John Smith.

MFW Kindergarten- L:Leaf

We read quite a few books about leaves and observed what happens to a leaf that is cut off from the plant, to illustrate our Words to Remember: I live and grow in Jesus. Of course, we headed outside to find leaves and some other fun nature items for our Leaf Man and Leaf Rubbings. I was sent a brand new book from the author Monica Wellington that fit perfectly with our unit. I will be sharing my review of this book, My Leaf Book, shortly, along with a giveaway. Here is a quick glance at what we were up to. 

MFW Adventures: Jamestown

As usual, the younger children participate a bit in our Adventures lessons. When I read the books, I read them during our story time, after Bible and before calendar. So, I had been reading a book or two about leaves, plus a book about Jamestown. Our main project (which has yet to be finished) is our Jamestown "model." We went out to the park to gather sticks, which we glued onto a triangular cardboard frame. There are two reasons we aren't finished. First of all, we didn't gather near enough sticks. Secondly, my hot glue gun is very old, and it was hurting my finger when I was trying to get out enough glue. So, it will be built in phases. Here is what we have so far. One side down, 2 to go.

We also learned about air pressure. It was surprisingly harder than you would think to flip a piece of newspaper off of the table with a ruler, because of the air pressure holding it down.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 19 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

Please remember, for this to be a successful linky party, we really need to be visiting some of the other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's Randomly Selected Post is: 

Trillium Montessori shared Learning About Fire Safety. 

And here is this week's most clicked on post:

Lauren from Tribal Church Planting Wife shared Adventures in Homeschooling: Planning for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas or other relevant board, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

<a href="http://totsandme.blogspot.com/search/label/Littles%20Learning%20Link%20Up"><img alt="Tots and Me" src="http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt58/kewkewphoto/littles%20schooling%20b%20small%20Collage_zpsefibifom.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

An InLinkz Link-up