The Whole Child e-zine brings you free preschool activities each week to maximize your child's potential, build skills and parent-child relationships in just a few minutes per day. Useful tips, quotes, resources, opportunities and articles will added for extra value!

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CONTENTS

1. Hello from Shirley
2. Updates at Shirley's Preschool Activities
3. Opportunities for you
4. Tips
5. Quotes
6. Readiness Activities
7. Which Day Suits YOU Best?

1.Hello from Shirley

Last week our homeschool support group had a picnic. One of the moms had just had the privilege of accompanying her husband on a business trip to Chile for about two weeks, while the children's grandparents took care of them at home.

She said that on her return, she felt quite overwhelmed by 'her life'. Adapting to having to cook meals again, change diapers and do all that a homeschooling mom of four does was a challenge for her again.

This past week, I felt much the same ...and I haven't been away! I've had a baby with an infection who wanted to cling to me all day and as a result I felt like things were getting out of control.

We all have days like this, but as I told myself yesterday, 'this too shall pass'...and today things are much better!

If you are not receiving this email in html format or you find white gaps where there should be images, then use this link for a much more colorful and easier-to-read version!

2. Updates at Shirley's Preschool Activities

I have added some more info about me and my site here.

I also added some colorful book pictures to Preschool Songs and Nursery Rhymes

3. Opportunities for you

The author, Stephen Beck of FamilyEbiz.com also explained this:

"A business is where the owner has unlimited potential for profit and a job is where a person trades his precious time for a prescribed amount of money. So when people in a community start talking about wooing a company to bring jobs to their town, they are really just asking for a way to trade their time (a priceless commodity) for a flat rate (a common commodity that will meet short term needs).

But if you really want to transform the economy of a community, then teach the people in that community to think entrepreneurally. Teach them to find a niche, find the needs in that niche and then fulfill that need for a profit."

I am so excited about the potential that online business can offer to anyone who is motivated to learn a little about it and create a profitable niche that I can't stop myself taking every opportunity to tell you about what I am doing in the hopes that it will inspire you too.

As a Christian, I believe that an online business is a great 'field of opportunity' for the modern Proverbs 31 woman.

It is a way for us to share our passions and use talents to benefit others as well as our own families!

Don't build JUST a website, build a website that WORKS!

4. Tips

You're probably wondering about the wierd title of this issue: Potato does it!

At the risk of you thinking I am whacky, I thought I'd tell you about the new use for potato I found this week ...and I found it by doing an online search.

My baby had a bite/sting/boil that created a huge swelling on his lower leg. I took him to the local clinic and a dressing with a product that draws the infection was applied. I was told that if the redness or swelling spread or baby got a fever, that I should take him to the doctor and get an anti-biotic on prescription.

Well, after 2 days it was no worse, but also no better, so I searched for 'natural cures for boils' and found a site that recommended applying a slice of potato to draw out the infection. Five people had verified that it worked for them, so I tried it and it did. I applied a thick piece and stuck it with strong plaster and covered it with a bandage to prevent baby pulling at it and left it overnight ...and this morning the swelling was down a whole lot and baby is his usual happy self again. Now his body can fight off the rest naturally.

5. Quote

Ephesians 4:29
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."

Proverbs 18:21
"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

"If you have nothing good to say, then say nothing." - Unknown

6. Readiness Activities

Copy and paste these activities into a new document, print and paste them where you will see them daily.

(A note on gender - I am not a feminist or anti-male in any way, it is just easier to use only one pronoun instead of his/her ...and to me 'her' sounds more personal than the overused male pronoun!!)

Auditory perception

Make up rhyming riddles for your child to complete, like these: I can think of something that rhymes with make When it’s a birthday we bake a …… (cake)

I can think of something that rhymes with sky When you can’t reach up to something it is too ……..( (high)

I can think of something that rhymes with boy A thing a child plays with is called a ……..( (toy)

I can think of something that rhymes with fox The thing we buy cereal in is called a ……. (box)

Perhaps your child might like to ask you some riddles too!

Mathematical skills – volume, weight

Let your child play with two plastic tumblers or jugs in the bath. Fill them with different amounts of water and talk about concepts like, full, fuller, empty, heavy, heavier, light, lighter, little and much heavier etc.

Language and thinking

Begin a habit of reading good literature aloud to your child regularly and let her narrate back to you afterwards. As avid fans of Charlotte Mason, I believe that children who practice the skill of narration, from living books, are not only able to repeat facts, but they learn to process and assimilate information and absorb it into their memories, making it a part of their unique knowledge of the world.

“But one who tries this method on himself will find that in the act of narrating every power of his mind comes into play.” (Charlotte Mason Original Homeschooling Series, Volume 1, Home Education.)

A comprehensive yet easy to read book about Charlotte Mason is A Charlotte Mason Companion (link to Amazon.com)

Preview at kalahari.net:


Gross motor skills

Play this game with your child: Tell her to lie on her back on the floor and pull her legs up to her chest and hold them with her arms, so that she is huddled in a ball. Tell her she is an egg and you are an egg-eating monster. When you come near her, she must straighten out her legs and stretch her arms out above her head and in so-doing turn herself into a stick. When you have passed by she must turn back into an egg, until you come near again! Make scary sound effects and use your imagination to make it fun!

Fine motor skills

Create opportunities for your child to draw and express herself through pictures. Ask her to draw a picture for a grandparent of friend or a card for a special occasion.

You could also draw messages for your child such as reminders to brush her hair, brush her teeth, pick up her toys, wash hands before meals etc. so that she discovers that messages can be communicated on paper.

Faith building

Teach your child some easy kids’ praise songs or listen to a kids praise CD or cassette together and learn some new ones!

We have enjoyed some Bible memory verse CD’s which are part of our Sonlight curriculum, where Bible verses are set to music and sung by children in a way that aids memorisation - Sing the Word! From A-Z and Sing the Word: A New Commandment.

We have also enjoyed some of the Donut Man music and Salty the Singing Songbook amongst others.

You can search on Amazon.com or Kalahari.net.
Amazon offers you the option of listening to snippets of the CD before you buy.
Click on the banners below to begin searching.

7. What Day Suits YOU Best?

What day of the week best suits you to receive this ezine? Apparently many people have an inbox jammed with mail after the week-end on a Monday, so I thought of sending this out on a Friday, so it arrives in good time for the following week. Tell me which day of the week suits YOU best?

Just hit reply, I'd love to hear from you. Use the Contact Shirley form, if you are reading this on my website.