Fresh from Heaven

We have a new little gift, fresh from heaven, as pink and as pretty as the most perfect rosebud that has ever been created.She is

loved

loved

loved

and is flourishing under the tender affections of her siblings. Oh, the wonder as sweet toddler hands gently unfurl the tiny, tiny fingers, faces awash with amazement at their perfection...gentle kisses on a downy head...standing on tiptoes for just more peek at her sweet, sleeping face.

   It reminds me of this story I read years ago:

Soon after her brother was born, little Sachi began to ask her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. They worried that like most four-year-olds, she might feel jealous and want to hit or shake him, so they said no. But she showed no signs of jealousy. She treated the baby with kindness and her pleas to be left alone with him became more urgent. They decided to allow it.
   Elated, she went into the baby's room and shut the door, but it opened a crack - enough for her curious parents to peek inside and listen. They saw little Sachi walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face close to his and say quietly: "Baby, tell me what God feels like. I'm starting to forget."

Dan Millerman

From: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Meet Little Rosebud...

It is my great privilege to visit  Grietjie's blog and share with you the birth of her little Rosebud! The newest addition to her already beautiful family was born yesterday afternoon, she is a gorgeous, healthy, perfect little girl and we thank our Lord and Father for keeping both of them safe during the delivery.

Congratulations to both Grietjie and Mike, may God bless you and your beautiful little girl!  Congrats Sweet Pea and ArrowBoy on a gorgeous new  baby sister!

Loads of love
Trudie {Fun with Little Mouse}

Using what we have: Junk mail 'I Spy' Pictures

Our weekly community newspaper usually arrives stuffed with ads from the major supermarkets. These are my two-year old son's favourite reading matter!! He loves to 'read' the pages with me, excitedly identifying familiar products and asking me to name the ones he doesn't know yet.

Last week's offering included two supermarket pamphlets for toy and sweets specials. After we had raided them for pictures of Lightning McQueen for Sweetpea's mini book, ArrowBoy scanned the leftovers and discovered pictures of his favourite - Mickey Mouse (or, as he says it, Meee Nouse..!) He got really excited about a teeny, tiny Mickey on the packaging of some game or puzzle, and this gave my the idea of using these minute little pictures for a simple, inexpensive I Spy page.

This was our first page:

The largest picture measures about 3cm x 2 1/2 cm, and the smallest is a mere 4 mm x 4mm!

I printed some clues for a few things to look for, laminated the sheet for durability and gave it to the children with a magnifying glass - it was a hit! So much so...

... that when I was clearing out some magazines this week, I held on to a catalog from a baby shop, and used it to create an even busier page!

Play and Learn with Mama: Trip to the Fire Station

One of the mothers in a local online homeschooler's group I belong to, recently arranged a trip to our local fire station, and the Little Joyful's had a ton of fun there! Here are a few highlights from the very chilly, but super-exciting morning!!

He was fascinated by the friendly fireman demonstrating how the jaws of life work!!

If you've missed any of my previous posts, be sure to also check out the Fire Fighter Lapbook we made, and our fun Fire Truck snack!

Play and Learn with Mama: Fire Truck Snack

This was such a simple, sweet little treat - way more sugar that they are ever allowed, but hence the word 'treat'!! This is our version of a Fire Engine snack I first saw here.

We used a lovely home-baked bread that my husband made the night before, as well as..

Strawberry Jam

Mini Shortbread cookies for the engine's window

Chocolate covered cookie rings for the wheels (the original used Oreos)

A glace cherry for the red light

Pretzel sticks for the ladder

I had prepared an example beforehand, and placed all the little bits and pieces on individual plates for the Little Joyfuls to build their own engines.

Delight!!

Play and Learn with Mama: Fire Fighter Lap Book

   I have been meaning to do a few weeks of Play and Learn activities with a community helpers theme for a while now, so when a mom in our local home schooler's group recently arranged a visit to the fire station, it was the perfect opportunity to jump right in with some fun activities!

   We started with a very simple lap book:

For the cover I printed a paper doll and fire fighter outfit from Making Friends. I coloured and cut it out for Sweetpea the night before, and she then had fun 'dressing' her fire fighter in the correct sequence.

  The next day we revised the order in which a fire fighter dresses for a fire emergency by discussing this picture I printed from here . I had made an extra copy, and Sweetpea then glued the pictures in the correct sequence into a mini book.

  We also had lots of giggles as we practiced Stopping, Dropping and Rolling, after we had discussed this picture, also from the resource above. (Click here.)

  There are some amazing free fire fighter printables available online, but since most of them are English, I designed and laminated a few of my own. Carissa over at 1+1+1=1 has a great post full of tips on how to create your own printables for lap books and tot packs. You can check it out here. Ours included:

  Size Sorting:

  Counting from 1 to 5:

  Letter practice:

 Pre-writing exercises and Matching pairs (and learning some interesting new words in the process!):

{Note: I will gladly e-mail you these printables to you if you're interested - just leave me a comment.}

  I also laminated these pages I printed out from Club Fire Facts.

I cut off the top of a manila envelope and glued it to the back cover of our lap book to keep the laminated pages together.

Envelope houses

A row of envelopes glued down on a strip of green cardboard 'grass' and decorated with foam stickers and oil pastels - so fun and cheerful!! We worked on this one together - I drew the road and most of the features on house number 3 - Sweetpea loves it when we do art together!!