Book Review – A Christmas Prayer, by Amy Parker

I LOVE this book, and plan on giving it to my 2 year old niece this Christmas.  It is simple, written in rhyme (rhyme that really works, if you know what I mean), and gently brings home the true meaning of Christmas.
The child in the illustrations thanks God for all the aspects of the Christmas story: the angels, the shepherds, the star, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and others.  It’s very well done and even brought a lump to my throat as I read it through the first time.

The illustrations are by Marljan Ramljak.  They are soft and pretty to look at.  I found them relaxing, albeit occasionally a bit too cutesy for my taste. 

This is a refreshing book for Christmas time – it helps offset the commercialism and materialism of the season. 
From the Thomas Nelson website:

Snuggle in this holiday season and offer up A Christmas Prayer.
In the tradition of A Night Night Prayer, this precious little child wanders through the house on a snowy Christmas night offering a prayer of thanks and blessing. The child finishes with thanks to God for the greatest Gift of all.
Noting all the characters in the Nativity, this lovable little nighttime prayer book has interactive dialogue and soothing rhyme for a child to repeat as they look around their world at Christmastime.
Between the soft Christmas glow of the illustrations and the smooth rhythm of the child’s prayer, A Christmas Prayer will make every parent and child want to snuggle up by the tree and offer a prayer of thanks to God for His many Christmas blessings.

Reading this book at Christmas will quickly become a tradition in our home, and I hope in yours too!

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishers for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book to review.

Preschool Math – an activity for counting and recognizing higher numbers

 

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that our current plan for math just hasn’t been working, so I’ve been busy making some activities to encourage counting and recognition of higher numbers.  Movement seems to be a big factor with M when it comes to learning something.  He’s quick to learn if he can engage his entire body and have fun. 

{Not to digress too much, but this is one of the reasons I worry about him being in a traditional school setting.  He really needs one on one time and someone with the patience and flexibility to adapt activities to his learning style, which is very much whole-body kinesthetic.  I’m not sure anyone loves him enough to provide this for him except his parents, or that it’s even practical to expect a teacher in a traditional setting to be willing to do this for all of his/her students.  Of course I assume as he matures he’ll be able to learn in other ways also, but until then I want what is best suited for him as he is.} 

I was given these Fisher Price cardboard flash cards when M was a baby (ours are similar to the ones linked to, but an older version).  I’m not really into using flashcards for memorization, but these are so cute I kept them, thinking that we’d find some way to use them. 

The numbers are 0 to 25 in the set, but we used only 0 to 15 this time.   I used a Sharpie to print the numbers 0 to 15 on the inside of bottle lids I’ve had in my “stash” for a long time.   (These were peanut butter jar lids for 10 to 15, and Gatorade bottle lids for 0 to 9.)

We lined up the cards, face up, from 0 to 15, with me (and often M) saying the number and pointing to the number on the card.  Next, he matched up each lid with the appropriate card.Then, the real fun began – as we went down the line, beginning at zero, we turned over each card to see that particular number of objects (4 cows, 5 sheep, etc.) and he counted pennies into each lid (except for zero of course!).  When he got to the higher numbers he placed the pennies directly onto the objects on the card, using one-to-one correspondence to make sure he counted correctly.He was very proud of himself when he finished, and I was pretty proud too. :) 

The total body movement, going down the line as we worked, was what really kept him involved in this.  And since 0 to 10 were very easy for him, he felt successful and this encouraged him to go on.  Oh, that and the fact that when he got to 13 and wanted to quit, I said he could keep all the pennies for his bank if he finished. ;) 

By the way, it takes 55 manipulatives to count from 1 to 10, 120 manipulatives to count from 1 to 15, and 210 manipulatives to count from 1 to 20 with an activity like this.  Good to know, right? ;)  Beans, beads, cheerios, small rocks, and pennies all make good counters for higher numbers!

Have a beautiful day! :)