Fun Paper Airplanes

Here's a great website for a summer day! It's too hot to be outside here so we fly these down our hall. We'll report back with the best flying design soon!

Fun Paper Airplanes!

Have fun!

NASA Kids' club

Graham's been into space for awhile, but is finally old enough to start to understand some of the cool space related things available for preschoolers. The NASA kids' club is a great example; he is now able to maneuver the site and enjoy some of the funny things, particularly Buzz Lightyear's travel to space. And what perfect timing, as Graham just watched Toy Story for the first time last night!

NASA Kids' Club

Happy space travels!

Maze Crazy!

Graham has discovered mazes! And thankfully, I have discovered a great website for them! Check out Krazy Dad's Mazes.

Why I like it:
There are literally thousands of mazes on this site, and all of them are free! They are arranged in books of 20 mazes and go from easy to more difficult. I printed two books back-to-back for Graham and stuck them in a binder for our upcoming road trip. We'll see if there are any left by the time we leave!

Beginning to Read: Go, go, go!

After making our 'A' book last week, Graham asked to make another book. So we made a book called 'I Go.' Here's the text:
I Go.
Go, go, go!
A car.
Go, car, go!
A boat.
Go, go, go!
Stop!
I go, go, go.

It's pretty simple. But Graham loves it. We illustrated it with appropriate stickers from a $1 sticker page of transportation vehicles and stop signs that I found at Target.
So now Graham knows A, a, I, Go, go. He recognized Stop, but only because there was a sticker of a stop sign. Which is fine. He doesn't need to know 'stop' yet. Go! Make a book with your child!

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids page is a fun place to learn about the history of orchestra, practice reading music, and listen to different instruments play twinkle, twinkle little star.

Why I like it:
It's colorful and easy to navigate. Click on the Instrument Encyclopedia on the piano to hear different instruments play. That's Graham's favorite! I found the seating charts for each era fascinating, but Graham didn't seem to care. Maybe next year...

Gingerbread Man

Do you know about Starfall? Graham loves the Gingerbread Man game the best, but there are plenty of other great games for pre-readers and beginning readers.

Why I like it:
It's simple and Graham can choose the parts of the gingerbread man easily. At the end, each word is highlighted as the computer reads 'Run, run, as fast as you can.' That's great for helping kids understand 1:1 correlation in reading (each word we say = one block of letters on a page).

Beginning to Read

Graham has started to show more of an interest in reading. So last week we made a book that he could read. It was so simple, and he was so proud of himself! Try it! You'll be amazed by what your three year old can do!


First, I let Graham take pictures of objects around the house. They weren't fantastic pictures, but he LOVED using the camera. Here's a sample:
Then, we put the card reader in the computer, uploaded them to picasa, and ordered them online to be picked up at our local CVS. An hour later, they were ready. I picked them up that night after the kids were in bed.

The next day, we cut some cardstock for the pages and used photo stickers to stick the pictures on. You could probably use glue and for sure you could use tape, but the photo stickers were fast and didn't make a mess.

After each photo, I asked Graham what we should write on that page. Since this was our 'A' book, we wrote 'A mug.' or 'A phone.' When we got to the frog picture, I suggested that we use the word 'my' because he loves that frog.

Then, we just stapled the pages together. I asked Graham what we should call his book. He said, 'Graham's Pictures.' He loves to read it!

A few little reading tips:

• Stick with eight to ten pictures for this book
• Stick with a pattern, introducing only one new word (my)
• Use both sides of the paper. That way your child will learn to look at the left side of a book before the right side.
• Consider using upper and lower case a's so that your child knows that it's the same word.
• Consider writing the words on one page above the picture and the words on the next page below the picture. This will help your child learn to look at the whole page and not just the bottom. Seems like a little thing, but later on it will make a difference.
• Have fun!