Sometimes McKenzie gets lost in the shuffle of schooling the older girls. I feel guilty about it and do my best to make sure I am doing some kind of preschool activities for her, whether it be coloring, counting, or playdough. I know she is learning and that little children learn through play, so I have been trying to cut myself some slack. For the past few weeks we have had the wonderful opportunity to review a relatively new curriculum for the little kids in your life, called Flowering Baby.
Flowering Baby takes a whole child developmental approach to learning for children from birth through age five. During the pivotal early years Flowering Baby strives to provide an academically and cognitively rigorous program, while still being fun and interactive. Using this curriculum will help your child to develop his language, social, cognitive, gross and fine motor, emotional and self-help skills. Created to be studied by year and then also broken down by month you can jump into the program any time, in any given year or developmental stage. Programs include:
Birth to One ~ Infants are very busy learning all the time and it only takes a few minutes a day to increase that learning even more. We have developed a program where you will work with your baby at least twenty minutes a day for twenty or more days a month on specific skills.
One to Two ~ As your baby becomes a toddler and learns to walk an entirely new world opens up. This year is about great exploration. He will discover to sit up, pull up, walk, run and maybe even kick a ball. He will work on directional tasks, experience paint and Play-doh, find out about dozens of new tastes and best of all realize he is capable of doing many tasks himself.
Two to Three ~ This year your child will continue his learning of the physical world, your family and his capabilities. Coupled with all of that he will begin to learn more traditionally academic tools as well: how to sing the ABC song, count, sing or recite nursery rhymes, shapes and colors and he will continue to get his hands dirty with paint and Play-doh. You will perform simple science experiments, play in the dirt, and use your imagination to take a plain cardboard box and create a space ship or a castle. He will learn to count in Spanish, learn to cut and hold a crayon, listen to a wide variety of music and enjoy countless books. What a wonderful and fun-filled year.
Three to Four ~ At the age of three our curriculum changes somewhat. We now have two parts, a daily general education guide and the theme studies. The general guide includes math, language, science, physical, self-help and such. your child will work on recognizing letters and their sounds, counting by one's and two's and in Spanish, shapes, colors, and patterns. Your child will learn about community helpers, safety issues, expand his self-help abilities, read, sing and listen to music. Children this age are very active so we have included many physical activities to get him moving. He will discover many new things: magnets, cooking and nutrition, playing more advanced games, and additional social skills.
Four to Five ~ Using the general guide you will help your child learn more advanced language and math skills. He will strive to recognize, write and sound out each letter of the alphabet. With the math skills you will work on counting to fifty, counting by two's, and you will begin writing numbers. He will play board games, put puzzles together, use paint, Play-doh and numerous other supplies to increase and solidify his knowledge. We have included many physical activities because he still has tons of energy. There are lessons on self-help; your city, state and America; safety and community helpers. You will listen to a wide variety of music, read dozens of wonderful books, sing songs, learn about weather and celebrate many holidays. This is a magical year, enjoy sharing this great world with your child.
~ program descriptions taken from website
Year plans cost just $30 a piece for Birth to One, One to Two, and Two to Three. Year plans Three to Four and Four to Five cost $38 each or purchase all five year plans for $132 for a solid early foundation. We received the whole program download that included all 5 year plans, however, we mainly concentrated on the year three to four plans.
The three to four year old curriculum is broken up by month with general educational guides and by themes. Each month includes plans for 15 days worth of simple and easy to do activities sure to keep your little one learning. Suggested activities include reading a book, small art projects, or practicing counting skills with cookies or raisins.
Flowering Baby is designed for ease of use on the parents part, however, do not let the simplicity of the program fool you. Even though the activities are ideas that you could think up on your own, having them listed out makes it so much easier for this Momma. Working with your child for just twenty to forty minutes a day on various skills you will see learning happening through each purposeful activity.
I was really excited to try out this program and overall I find it to be a gentle approach to early preschool learning. A perfect starting point to get your child into the daily habit of “doing” school. McKenzie really enjoyed doing most of the activities, especially the art aspects. While I do not see us continuing with the program into her four to five year plan, I would still recommend Flowering Baby. The ease of use of this program gives the child the right start to blossoming into their full potential.
Be sure to click through the sample plans linked above and if you like what you see, receive 10% off your purchase by using the code “Blog10” when Flowering Baby website . Click on the linky banner below to read how my Crewmates used Flowering Baby in their homeschool with their little learners.
Company/ Product ~ Flowering Baby
Price ~ $30 a piece for Birth to One, One to Two, and Two to Three. Year plans Three to Four and Four to Five cost $38 each or purchase all five year plans for $132
Age ~ birth to five years old
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: I received a copy of Flowering Baby’s curriculum plans, in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided.
Classical Academic Press has published this awesome introduction to Spanish program for kids in Kindergarten through third grade. I have been using this program for the last 6 weeks with Mikayla (4th), Montana (K), and very loosely with McKenzie (PreK3) with great success. We have taken a slower approach to using this book and completing one chapter over two weeks, as I want to stretch it out as far as I can :-).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: I received a copy of Song School Spanish from Classical Academic Press, in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but are not influenced by the company or the free product provided.
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