Easter Sensory Box

I have created another sensory box for my preschool age niece.  This one is Easter/spring themed.  Here are the sorts of items I included:

 

I found a scrapbook storage box on sale at Michael's.  Any sort of box will do to hold these materials....

 

A little Easter basket grass on top to obscure things and make the box mysterious....  She can use the grass to place in a small tin bucket I included (also from Michael's) and hide her chicks (Michael's) in there....

 

Here's the box contents proper, with grass and letter of instruction removed.  Last time I did these, I created card stock ideas and laminated them so they would hold up over time.  But since this one includes mostly the same ideas, I didn't feel the need for that this time....

 

The box includes a sheet of small stickers and some card stock pieces I cut to the size of book marks.  They can use these to create patterns (one pink, two purple, one blue, one pink, etc....)  Then they can save them and use them as book marks....

 

I started buying my niece Fancy Nancy books when she was just a babe.  They include a wealth of great vocabulary in them, as well as lots of scientific and artistic exploration.  She loves them (her father, on the other hand, who often has to read them to her, not so much, LOL....)

 

Last summer, I sent her some tiny fairies along with a foam core "tree house" that I found at Oriental Trading Co.  This item I found at Michael's.  It is a magnetic board with magnetic fairies and accessories, clothes, etc. so that you can create scenes (small motor skills work).  I told her that she can bring over her fairies from last summer to visit this box and play among the "flowers" there....

 

 

The primary fill in the box is decorative stones that you might use to fill up a clear glass vase, etc.  I got most of these items at Michael's after Easter LAST year, on sale.  I used two packs of these in the box.  She can use them for counting and patterning work, as you see here.

 

I got the little egg carton container (it is heavy plastic) at Michael's.  It can be used to sort the fill stones and chicks for counting and patterning purposes....  There are some little windmills included, too, for science talks about our breath, spring time winds, etc.

This is the small pail I mentioned earlier, along with a small Easter tree I also picked up at Michael's last year (but lots of dollar stores may carry similar items, too).  You may have noticed that the box contained small Easter ornaments (mostly eggs, bunnies, and chicks), which she can hang on this little tree (more fine motor skill work).

 

And why is this picture upside down, LOL?  More than that, why am I not being offered the option to turn it.... hmmmm....  Any way, I couldn't leave out little brother, just over a year old, so I included a spring time book for him and a chunky puzzle....

 

Happy Easter, everyone!

 

Regena

Self-study: The Bible and Life....

I have been remiss in keeping up with my blog.  I have had some depression issues this past year and began to feel that no one looked at it anyway, so why bother?  Perhaps it might help someone, somewhere, someday, however, so I will try to continue....

I have been working on catching up on some of my reading pile (generally kept next to my bed), clearing out some books on faith that I have neglected for a while now.  I am in my third year of a study of the Bible, slowly making my way through its books in order of a random preference list I created at the beginning.  I have just finished the book of Matthew and am beginning Genesis for the months of February and March.

I signed up with Operation World two years ago in order to receive their reminders to pray for every nation on earth.  Because they have not changed/updated this information in the past couple of years, I am not going to use them as a reminder this upcoming year.  Instead, I will use the country lists I created and sorted by regions of the world or ethnic/religious groups in order to pray for the world this year. 

At the beginning of my efforts to increase/change/improve my prayer life, I also cobbled together a little "book of hours" for myself and my prayer list is incorporated into that.  Now that I don't have a regular schedule during the day any more, waiting for my son while he is in outside classes, etc., I have had a hard time remembering to stop for prayer throughout the day, but I am working on it!

My 104 year old Grandmother passed away on January 10, after a short, not too severe illness.  I have been going back and forth the three and a half hours to my home town in order to help with clearing her house (she was somewhat of a hoarder, I guess - there's a lot of stuff)....  I have, for the first time in my life, been enjoying praise music while on these lone drives.

I was involved in a daily devotional last year with my church, which I have now finished and passed on to my mother.  I am resuming my reading of the Upper Room.  I think I prefer reading from a larger variety of authors over the course of the year, rather than just hearing one voice....

Some books I received from Billy Graham a while back, that I've just finished, include:

Break Through Prayer, Jim Cymbala:





When God Prays, Skip Heitzig (dealing with Jesus' prayer from John 17):






and Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham (not finished yet):




I also read an older book over the course of the fall and finally finished it up:  Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words, compiled by her friends....  Very interesting!



http://www.peacepilgrim.org/


Recently, The Missing Books of the Bible, Volumes I and II have come to me, so I may start on those next (I don't really see an editor - Harvey Minkoff, perhaps...?):




My younger son is doing well in school (much better than his older brother).  I have been busy assisting him, where necessary, with his literature course, but primarily with biology.  They are using a college non-major's book for this study (along with the standardized testing that goes along with it).  The teacher leaves quite a bit to be desired, and while I love the topics they are studying, there is too much covered too quickly for a beginner's group to be able to grasp it and regurgitate it by way of answering the more complex, college level questions they have to answer in 40 minutes or less for a test.  I sort of feel like *I* am taking biology again, LOL, but that's okay as I have enjoyed it and our study together seems to have made it more palatable to him, too!

My older son leaves for London on the twelfth, so we are making preparations for his travel.  Much time will be absorbed in prayer while he is gone.  (Pray he doesn't manage to get run over while there, please - you wouldn't laugh if you had ever seen him on the streets of Chicago....)  He's set to travel to Israel this summer for a month of archaeological work, so that will perhaps be even more traumatic for me (if he's even able to go by then)....

I continue to tutor my little scholar and am enjoying it immensely.  I wish I had a half dozen others like him to work with over the course of a week.  I will catch up on the books we've been using for our history studies soon....

Music Appreciation Lapbook (with Games)

I just discovered this great, free lapbook covering a large variety of musical topics.  It includes games and has worksheets for children of multiple ages.  It looks great!  I hope someone else can use it, too:

http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/05/kids-learn-music-free-lapbook.html

Regena