Confessions of a Homeschooler

Several weeks ago I was reading a friend's blog, and she linked back to Confessions of a Homeschooler. I *LOVE* this blog! She has a lot of great ideas, but my favorite feature is her units for each letter, featured on a pull-down menu from the main page. Her units offer lots of free printables to download--I usually print them out on cardstock and then laminate them, either by using my Xyron or going to Lakeshore Learning, where laminating is only 29 cents per food. That way we can use them over and over again! Check out this blog--I guarantee you'll find lots of great ideas.

J Books

When I started the Alphabet project, I figured I'd have trouble with certain letters--Q, X, Y. But I wasn't prepared for the trouble with J! I only found a couple of books, and only one of those turned out worth sharing.

Jessica by Kevin Henkes. I am a Kevin Henkes fan, and as my name is Jessica and I used to have an imaginary friend (named April), I just adore this story of a girl and her imaginary friend and what happens when said girl must start kindergarten. It is a fun story and the type is great for looking for letters, though really the only Js were in the name Jessica.

Do you have any suggestions for J books?

Jump Rope

For our J activity, I taught Emma how to jump rope. Or tried, anyway. Emma was great at the jumping but her timing was off--though she didn't care much anyway. No pictures because it's kind of difficult to turn the rope and take pictures at the same time.

I have been neglecting this blog for a long time, but I have been keeping track of what we've been doing with our letters and will try to get back to regular updates. If you're still out there, thanks for reading!

Jellyfish

For our J craft project we made a jellyfish, sort of inspired by the ones here and here. We really just used what we had on hand. Emma needed some help with the assembly but she loved the finished product. It's been hanging out in her room ever since.

Jell-O

I had a hard time coming up with something to cook that started with J, so I went for an easy classic. Though would you believe we don't eat jello very often at our house and Emma had never had it? She enjoyed the stirring, but not so much the eating of it.

DLTK-Kids

I come up with a lot of the ideas for activities for each letter on my own, but when I'm stumped I turn to DLTK-Kids. It is a HUGE clearning house of ideas for crafts, activities, coloring pages, you name it. It is convenitently organzied with categories such as: ABCs (the one I use the most, obviously), Animals, Bible, Holidays, and others. It's also a great source for birthday party ideas. Check it out!

I Books

Insectlopedia by Douglas Florian. This book contained different poems about bugs, which is kind of cool, but not necessarily for the alphabet project. The text was also quite long.

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. We've had this one for a while, and it's a cute, classic board book.

I Hear by Rachel Isadora. This book was about the different sounds a child is likely to hear--from birds in the morning to a lullaby at night. It was lovely, and I want to add it to our home library. Though it is not currenly on Amazon, it is worth seeking out. It is *perfect* for learning letters: short sentences, a simple font, a big font siz

I Can Do It Myself by Diane Adams. Is there a more appropriate book title for a precocious toddler? In addition to the cute topic, there were lots of Is.