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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January 2007, Issue #035

CONTENTS

1. Hello from Shirley
2. What's New at Shirleys Preschool Activities?
3. Preschool Activities Egroup
4. New Year's Opportunity
5. Quote
6. Book Reviews
7. Readiness Activities

1. Hello from Shirley

Well, January is almost over, so this ezine is overdue! A big ‘hello’ to all the new subscribers.

We have just completed the second week of our new school year, so we are still adjusting to the new routine. I now have children in Grade 1 and Grade 3 and two preschoolers aged, 4 and almost 2, plus a new baby due in April. My stepdaughter (15) who I was previously homeschooling too, is now living with her mom in a different city, so that’s been a change for us too!

At the end of February we will have to move house, so I’d like to take this opportunity to issue and ‘early warning’ that for the next month or so I will probably not be publishing this ezine, but I hope to pick it up again at the end of March when we are settled in our new home, wherever that is.

The house we are renting has been sold and we have yet to find another suitable house. Its not easy finding something suitable for a large family, that is always at home, homeschooling and with both parents working from home. In addition, my husband has a lot of work and hobby paraphernalia that needs parking and storage space! Please pray with me that we will find the ‘perfect’ house for this season of our lives – and soon!

2. What’s New at Shirleys Preschool Activities?

Well, after about 4 months of virtually no work on my site, I started the New Year with vigour and added a whole bunch of Preschool Winter Activities, including really easy winter crafts, winter theme rhymes and even a snow ice-cream recipe for those of you who live where there is snow.

This week, when I found my son (6) needed to practice writing his numbers for maths, I created Free Printable Number Worksheets which you can download.

3. Preschool Activities at Home Egroup

After a few weeks of quiet, there have been some interesting questions asked on our preschool activities eloop – about dealing with cheeky preschoolers, phonics programmes, easy activities to do at home and more…and the answers have been encouraging to many, even though we sometimes have different perspectives.

If you haven’t yet joined and would like to, send a blank email to preschool-activities-at-home-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

4. New Year’s Opportunity

It’s the start of a brand new year and I imagine that you may have made resolutions, plans or goals for the New Year.

How about finding another stream of income to supplement your family's earnings in 2007? A couple of hundred dollars extra or more per month could go down well, I am sure.

If someone as non-technical as me could build a profitable website, then you could too.

I used Site-Build It, a do-it-yourself web-building package that comes with a complete Action Guide, all the software features you could dream of and after-sales service designed to make success your only option! You see, their success depends on your success!

If you have been toying with the idea of starting a new venture about something you know and love, then now is the time to take the plunge!

Take the Quick Tour and then go to the Order Page to sign up and try it out! (They have a money back guarantee, so the risk is all theirs! You can ask for a refund if its not for you.)

You can read my story of how and why I built my site here and see how easy it'll be for you too and if you first want to ask me a few questions privately, you are welcome to contact me too.

"If we did all the things that we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

5. Quote

“Forgiveness doesn’t make the other person right, it makes you free.” Stormie O’Martian, Stormie, p 122

6. Book Reviews

I have read two books recently that will be of interest to parents.

You will find other parenting or teaching books that I recommend at Shirley's Store on my site.

1. Stormie, by Stormie O’Martian
Preview on Kalahari.net

This is the biography of Stormie, who is well known for her “Power of a Praying Wife/Parent/Woman etc" series of Christian prayer books.

Stormie was repeatedly locked in dark cupboard by a demented mother as a child and told she would amount to nothing. She spent years of her life trying to escape the pain and the emptiness that this abuse and emotional depravation caused her to feel, by experimenting with drugs, alcohol, occult practices, bad relationships etc.

On the verge of suicide, her life reached a turning point which was the beginning of a healing and forgiving process that brought her freedom and wholeness. She also shares how close she came to being abusive with her son, but how she overcame the abusive tendencies.

For anyone who has deep hurts from their childhood or feels inadequate as a parent because of their own upbringing, this true story will be an inspiration.

2. Bar Barakah, A Parent’s Guide to a Christian Bar Mitzvah, by Craig Hill

This year I intend reading a number of books I have heard about that cover the topic of speaking blessings over our children.

In this book the author explains the significance of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies that Jewish parents have for their children at the time of adolescence. He explains the need for all parents, especially Christian parents to bless their children, especially at the time of puberty and release them into (young) adulthood.

Not having experienced anything like this myself because I am not from a Jewish background, I found this quick read fascinating and encouraging.

7. Readiness Activities

The following activities are aimed at ages 2-3. For older children, adapt the activity to their ability or alternatively repeat the activities previously suggested for ages 3-5 in the Backissues of The Whole Child publication.

To download the activities in a printable pdf, click here.

You will need to have Adobe Reader installed. Its a free download.

Repeat these activities often - with your own variations too!

January

 1. Gross motor skills

Ball skills: Roll a ball to your child and encourage her to bend down, pick it up and throw it back to you. She should be able to do so without losing her balance.

 2. Fine motor skills

Drawing: Allow your child to scribble on paper. At two the marks will be insignificant but with practice your child will realize that her hand motions determine how the marks look. She will start to make controlled scribbles – circles, lines, dots etc. Only later will she start to name her drawings.

 3. Visual skills

Shape perception: Let your child feel the edge of a circular shape, then draw a large circle with chalk on the ground or create one with string on the carpet and let her walk around it. Ask her to make a circular shape using her body.

 4. Auditory skills

Auditory discrimination: Play a kids CD or tape and sing along. Turn the volume louder and softer a few times and talk about the volume with your child.

 5. Mathematical skills

Counting skills: Teach your child to count to three. Older children can practice counting as far as their age or as far as they can without errors.

 6. Language skills

Sequence: Frequently ask your child questions like this:

 7. Faith-building

Prayer: Create a bed-time routine with your little one where she sees you pray to our unseen God. She can pray aloud after your lead if she is able. At this stage you are establishing a daily habit and setting an example for your child.