First Time Mom and Losing It

I have been homeschooling my three year old consistently since September. We have our little routine and I have acquired a ton of homeschooling supplies. I find free lessons online that are fun for her with themes of characters she likes. I have recently found a whole bunch of nice workbooks at the discount stores and even Aldi's supermarket.


She is doing really well with everything I have taught her but the one thing that she was having difficulty with was writing. She did great with all of the tracing worksheets I have given her but wanted her to start freehand writing. She didn't understand what the lines on writing worksheets meant so her letters were there but all over the place. I tried teaching her what the lines meant but she didn't get it until I thought up the name tiles. My idea was to enlarge the lines and make tiles of them so that she could write the letters one at a time.


To my amazement it worked! My daughter was writing out her name using the guidelines correctly. Within a few days she knew how to write her entire name. A couple of days later she memorized how to spell her name. The first two days we used the tiles, I modeled how each letter should go on the guidelines and then let her do it. After two days I was giving her one tile at a time, asking her what letter came next and then had her write it. I am so proud of my little three year old. We are working on her last name now. She knows how to write every single letter and is now memorizing how to spell it.

Letter Tiles
Step 1: Download the name tiles page. Print out as many as you need for each letter in the first and last name.


Step 2: Cut each name tile out and laminate each tile. Use, erase and reuse.

**Now that my daughter can write every letter in her first and last name and using the guidelines correctly, I have moved on to writing strips. I found these strips in the teacher section of my Dollar Tree and have laminated them to reuse them.

What are your handwriting tips? 

I have been homeschooling my daughter everyday for a few months now. To make it fun for her I found some amazing Christmas themed lessons. She has been more enthusiastic about these lessons but still gives me a hard time sometimes. I wanted to create a Christmas Tree that we could hang up but that also had a lesson included with it. I decided to create the Christmas Tree with some pom poms because that is my daughter's favorite.

First I created the template by creating a green tree and adding some circles. I colored in some of the circles to stand for the ornaments. The circles are the placement holders for the pom poms. I had tons of pom poms but not enough green so I went to to my local craft store to pick up a bag of green pom poms. Then I found some sparkly pom poms for the ornaments.


I printed out the Pom Pom Christmas Tree template onto some card stock so that the art piece would be more durable and easier to hang on the wall. Once I printed out the template I placed it onto my daughter's learning table and spilled out the pom poms next to her. Then I asked her if she could help decorate the Christmas tree by adding the pom poms were they belonged.

To make the process a little less messy I placed some Aleene's Tacky Glue onto a little paper cupcake cup that I had. This way she could dip it in instead of squeezing a ton of glue onto each pom pom. Since the Aleene's Tacky Glue is thicker it helps the pom poms stick on better and stay on faster. When all of the pom poms were placed we let it dry for a few hours before putting it on the wall. I used foam mounting tape to hang up the beautiful pom pom tree.

What Christmas themed lessons or crafts do you do with your kids? 

A few weeks ago I posted my Preschooler Sliding Sight Word Reading Cards. We are deep into homeschooling and using an amazing iPad program called Learn with Homer. I wanted to reinforce what she learned with the app so I created the sliding cards. It makes it easier for her to focus on one letter and one sound at a time and then she puts it together and reads it. I love this method of reading because she has become so independent with reading and doing the lessons herself.


Last week she went through a little stage of not wanting to do "Learning Time" so I just took out the cards whenever we had a free moment. I gave her a little break from new lessons and worked on getting the cards I made for her in the first round right. When I was confident that she knew these words we continued the lessons on the app. Here are second batch of words that she learned.

Sliding Sight Word Reading Cards 

• Slider 
• Word Strips 3
• Word Strips 4
• Word Strips 5
• Cardstock 
• Printer
• white glue

Step 1: Download the template files and print out the files using the "fit to page" option.


Step 2: Cut out the letter strips and set aside. Cut out the slider on the solid black lines.


Step 3: Fold over on the dashed lines. Put a little bit of glue on the folded sides and then place the rectangle part on top carefully lining it up. Press down firmly and allow to dry for at least an hour before using.

Step 4: Insert one letter strip and show the child how to pull out the letters one by one and help them sound it out.

Click on the link to download the words from the first round and to see a picture tutorial on how to make them. 

My three year old has been using the Learn with Homer iPad Program for over a month and a half now and she is already reading! I never would have imagined that she would be reading so quickly. My daughter was a really early talker so I knew she had it in her but it still amazes me to see my little one reading. Super proud mommy moment!

I wanted to reinforce the words she already knew how to read so she wouldn't forget them so I made some sliding sight word reading cards. I made a card for all of the words she has learned so far and will continue to make them as the list of words gets longer. I love the way the Learn with Homer app teaches the kids to sound out each letter one by one to read the word. I took the idea of creating a sliding card where kids can just pull the tab and see one letter at a time so that they can sound it out and put it together.



Sliding Sight Word Reading Cards 

• Slider 
• Word Strips 1
• Word Strips 2
• Blank Word Strips
• Cardstock 
• Printer
• white glue

**This post is part of a sponsored campaign. I received compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own.


I have been homeschooling my 3 year old for over a year now loosely and for about a month now more structured. I found a curriculum I like and I wasted paper and ink on tons of sheets and activities and bound them up. It was hard for my 3 year old to sit still while I went through the curriculum. When I heard about Learn with Homer I jumped at the opportunity to try it out with my daughter. Learn with Homer is a learning program that was developed by top literacy experts and proven to give results. The program is perfect for children ages 3-7.


She has been expertly using an iPad even before she was one so I thought the Learn with Homer program on her iPad would be more interesting to her. I asked her to hand me her iPad and went to the app store to download the Learn with Homer. She was excited that I was getting her a new app. I asked her if she wanted to play with me and she quickly agreed.


I logged in and set up her profile. She loved that she got to take a picture of herself and pick a hat for her profile picture. Then we went to the sections of learning and picked learn to read first. The first lesson was the "ah" sound and with the colors, cute characters and fun lessons my daughter surprisingly got all of the answers right. At the end she had fun recording her voice and listening to herself say the "ah" sound.


We continued to work on the lessons, read the stories and poems for a while and then I was the one to tell my daughter she can have a break. She was having so much fun learning with the Learn with Homer app that she didn't even realize that we were doing a learning activity. I love that she can begin to learn to read without my help. It is more than just practice drills like most of the reading apps out there. It actually teaches the basics of reading and doesn't assume that she already knows certain things.


The Learn with Homer program offers more than 1,000 lessons and activities including stories, games, history, science, art and music and real world context. The program is even better now with a new navigation set up and an introduction of a new interactive themed world.

The Learn with Homer is available for free 30-day trial from learnwithhomer.com or on the App Store on iPad. Unlimited access to the entire curriculum is available for $7.95 per month or $79.95 for a full year’s membership. Use my link to get 50% off of one year of Learn With Homer.

**I received the product below free for my review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be a good fit for my readers. All opinions are 100% my own.


When I went to Blogger Bash in July one of my favorite booths at Sweet Suite was Educational Insights. Being a teacher made me appreciate how every one of their toys has some educational aspect to them. They create toys that are not only educational but extremely well made and fun. The amazing people at Educational Insights sent us some toys to play and learn with. My daughter was so excited to play with the big box of toys.


First we played with the Magic Moves® RainbowJam™. You just take the wand and press it onto whatever color you want. Every time you press on a color it will tell you what color it is and play a song to go with the color. It has different musical styles like Latin and jazz. It comes with a 16-page musical activity book. My daughter loved playing the songs with the colors and singing to them. She had the most fun running around the house clicking on every color she could find.


Next was the Puppet-on-a-Stick™ Rainbow Prancers, Set of 3. My daughter is a huge fan of ponies and unicorns are even better! I love that the Prancers had hair she could comb and stickers she could decorate with. First we played pretend with them by just moving the wands around. Then I taught her how to use the lever to move the mouth. It took her a few tries to do it but when she got the hang of it she had so much fun making them talk and sing.


Her favorite of the bunch was the Design & Drill® Flower Power Studio™. I love how cute the floral design was and the bright colors. Having the base fold and close was a big plus to contain all of the little pieces. Once I put the batteries into the drill my daughter was in love! She felt like a big girl using the drill and got the hang of it pretty quickly. She wouldn't stop until each nut was drilled in place. I love how it came with a booklet of designs to try.


We also got the GeoSafari® Jr. Jungle Crew Lab Set™. It is a 6-piece, animal-themed science set. I love that it comes with 10 hands-on activity cards with fun and easy experiments to try. I will be adding this set to our science curriculum and will be posting pictures soon of them in action.


Which one of the bunch is your favorite? 

**This post is part of a sponsored campaign with HP and MomSelect. All thoughts and opinions are my own.


I have been casually homeschooling my toddler over the past year and a half. Whenever we have free time I take the opportunity to teach her something new. I first started getting ideas from homeschooling blogs and now I am obsessed with finding educational printables and lessons on Pinterest. I have gathered an incredible amount of resources in my board below. It is amazing how many great printables and resources I have found all over Pinterest. Be sure to look over the board and follow it because I will be constantly adding more resources.


I also like to create holiday themed printables that my toddler can have fun working on while celebrating the holiday.

Easy St. Patrick's Day Pom Pom Art + Printable
Cinco De Mayo Coloring and Magnetic Printable
Memorial Day Flag Fun with Stickers + Printable
Learn To Spell Toddler Flash Cards #Printable


Now that my toddler is three I want to make homeschooling more structured so I purchased a homeschooling plan and went to town printing lessons, activities and games and putting them into a learning binder. We will be starting in September and having a full prek 3 day of learning.

All these printables take lots of ink so I am super excited to share the promotion that HP has going on starting today! When you buy one Original HP Ink, you get a 2nd cartridge of equal or lesser value for 50% off. This is the best deal on HP ink since 2012 so please make sure to stock up! You can find HP ink and the deal at the HP website and retailers like Staples, Best Buy and Office Depot. The promotion starts on 7/26 and ends on 8/1.


What are you going to print out after you take advantage of the HP Ink Super Deal? 

My daugher loves playing dress up with her dolls. She is forever taking off outfits and putting on different ones with her Barbies. She got this really cool Doc McStuffins magnetic play doll that she loved to change the clothes on so I decided to make that like more educational. I designed a paper doll and some clothes, laminated it and added some sticky velcro. Then I made flash cards for each article of clothing so she could begin reading and memorizing how the words are spelled.

To make your own Educational Paper Dolls and Clothes:

1. Print out the following printables: doll, clothes, flash cards.


2. Carefully cut out the pieces of clothing.

3. Place the pieces of clothing into a laminating sheet sleeve. Make sure none of the pieces of clothes overlap and has a little bit of space all around.

4. Laminate the entire sheet of the doll printable.


5. Cut fourteen little pieces of velcro. Remove the paper backing of 5 pieces of velcro and place the soft part of the velcro onto the doll where indicated.


6. Take the pieces of the rough part of the velcro, remove the paper backing and place it on top of the pieces of velcro that you added to the doll earlier. Place the pieces of clothing correctly on top of the doll and press down so that the sticky part of the rough pieces of velcro stick onto the clothing. Repeat this step for all of the pieces of clothing.


After playing with the dolls for a while my daughter now knows what each piece of clothing is called. I started showing her the flashcards and reading them to her and now she knows how to read hat and shoes. I know that she will be reading all of the words in no time.

I have been homeschooling my toddler since September so that I can prepare her for pre-k. We have been doing pretty good and I love downloading and printing out worksheets for her to work on. I usually laminate the worksheets that she will use over and over and give her a dry erase marker. I wanted to try something different as she was getting bored of the same worksheets.


I got to review these amazing and brightly colored liquid chalk markers that work great with glass. I decided to get some frames that I could slip the worksheets in to write on top of the frame. Since the liquid chalk markers were so bright, colorful and liquidy my daughter really had fun using them. They wrote really smoothly on the glass and were easy to clean up with just a baby wipe. She loved having so many colors to choose from and it helped her practice all the different colors she knows.


I made some worksheets for her to work with that you can download below:

• Shapes Worksheet
• Numbers Worksheet
• Letters Worksheet
• Colors Worksheet