Let’s Get Ready with Cedar Valley Publishing

Nothing makes me happier that seeing kids reading my books!!! Check out this review!! It makes my heart sing!

Check out 4 Fabulous Familes and the book review they did for Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten.  Here’s a little snippet of it – please visit their website HERE to read the rest of this wonderful review:

I recently won some books from the Let’s Get Ready series by Cedar Valley Publishing. As an aspiring teacher myself, I have been working with my girls for some time on their kindergarten readiness skills: letter recognition, shapes, colours and memorizing our phone number in particular. I am absolutely delighted with these books.  https://4fabulousfamilies.blogspot.com/2009/10/cedar-valley-publishing-review.html

1. Empower the kids to be involved in packing and planning and being a part of organizing your trip!
2. Purchase small travel-size dry erase boards and plan some activities using them such as:
   • The Drawing Game:  draw a cow, draw an octagon, draw a car, draw the number 48, etc.
   • The True or False Game:  Have kids put a T for True or an F for False to a series of family questions such as:  Grandma Martha used to drive a motorcycle; Aunt Beth is adopted; You have 4 first cousins; etc.
   • The Person, Place or Thing with 10 clues Game:  Select a category between, person, place or thing and write down the answer and have the kids ask clues to figure out the answer.  For example – for a person, the kids might ask, do I personally know this person or is it someone famous?
   • The Yes or No game:  Ask questions and the kids will write yes or no – Do you like pizza?; Would you like to scuba dive someday?; Might you be a teacher?; Sail the ocean?; Travel to the North Pole?
   • Perfect for Tic-tac-toe and hang man games!
3. Bring books for quiet time reading for the kids to enjoy.  Set the timer and tell the kids it is quiet time to either take a nap or read! Of course our books are perfect for kid fun or playing school or teacher in the car:  Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten!, the Spanish/English of iA Prepararse Para Kindergarten! or Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten!
4. Bring travel-size colors and a coloring book with a tray to do activities!
5. Purchase blank books in the dollar bin and create travel journals documenting the trip.  Purchase some vacation-themed stickers and allow the kids to either use the camera to take some pictures or get them cheap disposable cameras that they are in charge of using!
6. Print off the computer start and stop maps to where you are going and let them draw points of interest that they have seen along the journey!
7. Bring electronic devices, if they already use and a DVD for movie time!
8. Bring prepacked healthy snacks ready to go to keep the kids happy!
9. Crank up the radio and sign along together to your family favorites!
10. Share family stories about how they will be seeing on the trip or about how Mom and Dad met, some of the things Grandma and Grandpa used to do and stories when Mom and Dad were kids!
11. Pack travel-size cold water for the kids, put them in pull-ups to avoid accidents in the car seat or plane, bring wipes for quick clean ups and toilet paper for emergency stops!
12.  Have an extra change of clothing with easy access as well as favorite stuffed animals and blankets to encourage sleep time.
13.  Count to 25 by finding 25 white cars; 25 red cars, trucks, cows, etc.
14.  Before you leave home, guess the number of VW Bugs you will see along the way or Smart Cars or Windmills or flags and start counting.
15.  Play “I Spy” something red, something red, white and blue or something moving, etc.

Happy traveling with kids!

Gretchen at Tea Safari was sweet enough to give us some of her amazing tea.  Heidi and Megan loved the Strawberry Kiwi Iced Tea.  It is unbelievably delicious and caffeine-free.

Iced Tea Preparation Instructions:

1. Brew a tea concentrate by following the regular brewing instructions printed on the tea bag or tin, but using twice the amount of leaves. If sweetener is desired, we recommend using sugar, stevia, honey, etc. while the tea is hot.
2. Fill glasses or pitcher approximately 2/3 with ice (preferably made using filtered water). Use plastic or tempered glass only.
3. Immediately pour the hot tea over the ice, separating the leaves with a strainer. If necessary, add more ice until the concentrate is diluted to nearly double its initial volume.
4. If desired, add a slice of lemon, lime or orange or decorate with a sprig of mint leaf.
5. Example Measurements: To prepare 36 ounces of iced tea, brew 18 ounces of tea using approximately 6 teaspoons of tea leaves.

Tea is a great way to stay hydrated and healthy.

• Write full name and phone number
• Know upper and lower case in/out of sequence
• Know colors and shapes
• Know numbers 1-50
• Count to 100
• Recognize patterns
• Skip count by 5’s and 10’s to 100
• Know money and value
• Read basic sentences
• Know days of the week and months of the year
• Understand weather concepts
• Know letter sounds

Here are the 7 things kids will be tested on in their first Kindergarten assessment test:

1. Know the uppercase alphabet and name the letters out of sequence or mixed up, such as: B, D, X, K, J, M, O, etc.
2. Know the numbers to 0-10 and identify the numbers out of sequence or mixed up, such as: 2, 5, 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, etc.
3. Identify basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
4. Identify basic shapes: circle, diamond, rectangle, triangle, oval, and square.
5. Identify basic coins: penny, nickel, and dime.
6. Count objects to 10.
7. Show how far they can count toward 100.

Make learning this fun!!! Practice this information when driving with your child, searching for shapes, colors and letters to make learning interactive.  Counting is a great activity for bath time.  Shopping with your child is a great time to practice coins.  Empower your child to get ready for Kindergarten!

Some more tips to help include these seven things in your daily living with your youngsters:

• Pick out shapes, one a day, in a room.  First, print a circle and hang it up in that room and then all day, find that shape in the room and make a list.  Go slow to begin with, perhaps one shape a week.
• For the grocery store, give each child their own list (around ages 3-5), that they had to pick out themselves, find the price and write it down on their list paper.  If we just had a few things to buy, one child would stand up by the register and read the price of the item as it was scanned – sometimes, the checker even let the kids scan the items themselves!
• For ABC letters, use the newspapers – a different letter each day.  By dinner, the kids must choose one page and circle all of that letter (upper- and lower-case letters being separate).
• Kids count change each day when hubby comes home from work – one child counts per day and then have them put the money in a bank that has separate slots for each coin.
• For colors, take the kids to a fabric shop.  Tell them the colors you are looking for, for a project, and have them go find what they like and talk about the colors and selection options.