World Scrunch Map Review {Timberdoodle 1st Grade Curriculum Kit}

Today we are going to take a closer look at one of the geography components in our 1st Grade Elite Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle, our World Scrunch Map.

Our World Scrunch Map

Our World Scrunch Map out of original packaging

Our map is 36 x 24 inches and is made with both water resistant and tear resistant material!  I love the details and colors and how durable it is.  This is especially important because little hands are using it.

 

F holding up our map!

 

Our one sided map is super convenient because it is extremely portable and easy to put away.  You can literally bring it with you anywhere, unlike a traditional wall map, where you have to be in the room to utilize it.  And instead of having to fold the map in the correct orientation, you simply scrunch it up into a ball and stuff it into its drawstring carrying bag, also making it easy to store.  I must admit that as someone who likes to put things away neatly, this was a stretch for me at first but it is super easy for smaller kids to wad up this map and put it into its bag - that's what it is designed for!  As you can imagine after being wadded up this map will not be pristine, there will be wrinkles.  And that's okay.

 

F showing me where we live (Texas).

I love that my little ones can use it and put it away.  It's such a great educational resource to have on hand.

Check out Timberdoodle's short video below to see more about this World Scrunch Map.

 

 

Our World Scrunch Map is a part of our Timberdoodle 1st Grade Curriculum Kit and we highly recommend it!

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  I will be refunded the purchase price of our curriculum kit in exchange for my honest reviews.  All opinions are my own.

Merry Christmas 2020

 

Our Christmas Tree!

I took a lot of time of social media to enjoy this holiday season with my family!  We had a fabulous Christmas and I'm so thankful for the time we had and have together.  There are several family traditions that we have that we were able to do once again this year.  On Christmas Eve, the kids got a new set of pajamas.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them wearing their new pj's.  We went to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve and their were so many to see!

 

This pink house was amazing.

We baked a cake for Jesus' birthday.  F and G were in charge of decorating it this year and they did a great job.

The boys kept it simple and there had to be sprinkles!

If you know us then you know we use real socks for stockings.  It has to be a sock that you have worn sometime during the year.

Our family's socks on Christmas Eve

And on Christmas!  It's amazing what a sock can hold 😉

While many things have looked different this year, it was nice to be able to continue on with so many of our Christmas traditions as usual.  I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Snail Locomotion

We recently had a large amount of rain and with it brought Shelly the Snail.  The kids had a great time time watching Shelly move on our windows and back deck.  We enjoyed watching Shelly movie via muscular contractions in "her" foot muscle.  It was fascinating to see how snails can climb steep inclines!

E's Nutcracker Dance Recital

E loves dance, especially ballet!  She has been blessed to be a part of a small ballet class this semester.  They performed a mini-recital of a few songs from the Nutcracker a week ago and it was so cute.  E had a blast!

E with her teacher!

And the stars of the show!

What about your family?  Have your kids been able to participate in activities?

Miss PattyCake Christmas Bundle Review

I wanted to share with  you something we have been enjoying this holiday season, the Miss PattyCake Christmas Bundle.  This is a fun, educational, music-filled and God-centered gift set!  It's geared for preschool children and kids up to 6 or 7.  G (age 4) has really been enjoying it.

What's included in our set?  Our set includes a Christmas DVD, which is all about the true story of Christmas and contains lots of music.  Songs include PattyCake Praise, It's Christmas, Handy Helper, What Will The Weather Be?, Mary's Song, Good News, and Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday.  We also have Miss PattyCake Let's Decorate The Tree! book, which is a colorful, rhyming book that uses decorations as a teaching tool to show children about God's love and Jesus' birthday!  And lastly our set contains Miss PattyCake's Christmas Coloring & Activity book.  This book goes right along with our DVD and has fun activities like dot-to-dot, spot the difference, cut and paste, color by number and so on.

Reading Let's Decorate the Tree! with G

G is loving the coloring and activity book.  There are so many fun pages for him to complete.

I love that this set is fun, engaging and most of all Christ-centered.  G is absolutely loving it and I imagine that he is going to have his activity book complete in no time!  I appreciate that there are some parent "extra credit" ideas to complete with G.  Some of these ideas include having a dress-up day with crowns and royal clothing to remember that Jesus is the true King.  Another is to make cookies in the shape of a star to remind us of Jesus.  I plan on doing a few of these next week with him as it is the week of Christmas.  If you are looking for a fun gift set for a preschooler, we would definitely recommend Miss PattyCake and this amazing Christmas Bundle!  You can purchase one here.

Disclosure:  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing me with this bundle in exchange for this review and post.  Opinions are 100% my own.

Mystery Birthday Cakes {Surprise Birthday Cakes}

As you know, B and D have both had their birthdays!!  We made mystery cakes or surprise cakes for them and I thought I'd share them with you.

 

Above is D's cake.  It was strawberry flavored and contained a surprise but she didn't know about it till we cut into it.

 

What was the surprise for her?  M&Ms!  One of her favorite candies.

 

D's piece of cake!

 

Above is B's cake.  It was chocolate flavored and also contained a surprise.

 

 

Cutting B's cake...

 

B's surprise was a strawberry flavored heart!

Happy 15th Birthday B!

 

Birthday Girl

Yesterday, B turned 15.  A, B and C had their Winter Band Concert on her birthday.  It was fun to hear them play.  B is sensitive, compassionate and caring. I love her passion for others. To know her is to love her. Love you B!!  I look forward to celebrating you even more this weekend.

A (in blue), B (in red) and C at their Winter Band Concert

Happy 11th Birthday D

 

Birthday Girl

Happy 11th birthday to our lovely D! She brings so much joy to our lives and our family is truly blessed through her. She is a rainbow baby that has brought so much healing to my heart and soul.

 

Beautiful D

It’s been a tough few months with a weird elbow injury for her. There wasn’t a specific “incident” which made diagnosis trickier but she was finally diagnosed with Osteochondritis dissecans or OCD for short. It’s a condition that often affects baseball players and gymnasts. D will be out for this gymnastics meet season and to say that she is bummed is an understatement. She may require surgery but that’s unknown at the moment. Please pray for full recovery and wisdom for her and us as we navigate this injury. We truly covet your prayers! In other news, D got her braces off a few days ago so woohoo!

 

Happy Birthday D!  May your wish come true.

Christmas Door Decorating {Church Contest}

We decorated David's 2nd grade Children's Ministry door over the weekend for the Christmas Door Decorating Contest at church.  I love how it turned out.  We used various wrapping papers, burlap, felt, cord and beads.  We even added lights to the star (at D's request)!

A close-up of our wise man riding a camel.

And a close-up of our working lights!

Name Bookmarks and Amazing Name Print Activity Sheets from CrossTimber Review

{Disclaimer:  I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.}

If you are searching for personalized gifts for the holidays, I want to share with you Name Bookmarks and Amazing Name Print Activity Sheets from CrossTimber.  You may remember our previous review of their Your Amazing Name - Personalized Adventures for EVERY name, which F loves!  This time I was blessed to receive 5 of their Name Bookmarks.  I chose to get bookmarks for A, B, C, D and E.  My plan is to use them as one of their stocking stuffers (shh, it's a surprise).  I also received the Amazing Name Print Activity Sheets for G!

 

There are lots of choices for your bookmarks!

There are over 200 styles and designs to choose from when creating your personalized bookmarks.  Above you can see some of the selection for bookmarks with wings.  I ended up choosing one of these designs for A's bookmark because she loves birds.  You can choose from outdoor scenery, ocean sunsets, castles, lighthouses, Faith & Inspiration, meaningful symbols and so much more!  With all the choices it's easy to create a unique design for everyone.  I chose a faith design for B, a drum design for C since he plays the drums, a ladybug design for D, and a jewel design for E.  After choosing your design, you can choose your bookmark quote from 5 different categories - quotes from Presidents, Authors, Definitions of Encouraging Character Qualities, Bible verses to fit the name meaning or custom text.  I chose Bible verses for all of the kids.

A few of our bookmarks

 

A close up of D's

A close up of E's

 

Our bookmarks include each person's name in calligraphy, the meaning of their name and an appropriate scripture in each of the backgrounds I hand picked for them.  I love the way each of them turned out.  Each bookmark is laminated to give them extra durability.  The colors are bold and bright and I am hoping the kids enjoy them too.

As I mentioned above I also received the Amazing Name Print Activity Sheets for G.  They have his name incorporated into tracing, color sheets, mazes, word searches, and many other fun activities.  G loved them and his older siblings helped him with some of the "harder" sheets for him.

G tracing his name.

 

 I showed G how to write his name in red and he traced the bottom line in green.  I think he did a great job for 4.

G coloring his farm!

G following the letters of his name to solve the maze.

 

I love this picture that A colored for G.

 And this owl is pretty fantastic too!

The Amazing Name Print Activity Sheets are lots of fun!  I enjoyed seeing how G's name was incorporated into the various activities in creative ways.  There are various difficulty levels throughout the pages from simple coloring pages to challenging coloring and more.  If you are looking for fun personalized gifts and activities, we would highly recommend CrossTimber and their selection of name meaning gifts!

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Operation Christmas Child Box Ideas

 

 

We have been filling Operation Christmas Child Boxes for many years.  It's a fun activity for our whole family to get involved in and we love coming up with new gift ideas and ways to bless others during the holiday season.  This year each of the kids filled up a box and we dropped off 7 boxes this weekend at our church for distribution!  Let me show you what we put in them.

 

B chose a girl age 2-4 and above you can see what we put in her box - stickers, paper pad, jumbo crayons, toothbrush, miniature doll, straw cup with washcloths inside, bandages, tissues, socks, bracelets, headband, hairbrush, stuffed bunny and baby doll.

 

B with her box.

 

E chose a girl age 5-9 and above you can see what we put in her box - a sticker book activity set, strawberry squishy, journal, colored pencils, toothbrushes, hair ties that look like a lollipop, flashlight, hairbrush, washcloth, tissues, bandages, small toy and a plush cat.

 

E with her box.

 

D also chose a girl age 5-9 and above you can see what we put in her box - a small journal, colored pencils, a marker set with activity book, a magic marker set, hair ties that look like a lollipop, flashlight, hairbrush, toothbrushes, washcloth, tissues, squishy key chain, socks, purple barrette, unicorn ball plush and a purple unicorn plush.

 

D with her box.

 

A chose a girl age 10-14 and above you can see what we put in her box - a small journal, colored pencils, pens, washcloth, soap holder, hair ties, barrettes, hairbrush, flashlight, socks, toothbrush, yo-yo, watch, beautiful necklace and a bear plush.

 

A with her box.

 

 

G chose a boy age 2-4 and above you can see what we put in his box - stickers, paper pad, jumbo crayons, toothbrush, bandages, socks, animal bracelets, water balls, tissues, activity pad, washcloth, car, flip car, sock plush and a monkey plush.

 

G with his box.

 

F chose a boy age 5-9 and above you can see what we put in his box - stickers, paper pad, several small packs of crayons, toothbrushes, bandages, socks, fun bracelets, tissues, activity pad, washcloths, several sets of cars, flip car, sunglasses, flashlight, a small elephant, an UNO game and an otter plush.

 

F with his box.

 

C chose a boy age 10-14 and above you can see what we put in his box - paper pad, pens, toothbrush, tissues, washcloths, combs, sunglasses, cool set of cars, flashlight, ball, yo-yo, sports watch and a dog plush.

 

C with his box.

I hope this gives you some ideas of things that you can put into Operation Christmas Child boxes.  You can check out our post from last year for more great ideas!