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The Blog — educational fun

New Halloween Journal and Activity Book for Kids!!

Melissa Bastow

Tags books, coloring page, educational fun, halloween, planners, printables

New Halloween Journal and Activity Book for Kids!!

Our new Halloween Journal and Activity Book for kids is so much fun!!!  My seven year old could barely wait for me to take pictures before he claimed a journal and started writing and drawing! Here are some of the fun pages that will keep your child engaged and creating. The daily journal pages track emotions, focus on positive parts of a child's day, and grounds them by writing down observations.   Other activities include: coloring pages, writing a story, designing a haunted house, a monster debate, puzzles, and more! You can buy this journal in THREE different formats!  Get the...


Silly Rhyming Kids Books That Are Fun to Read!

Melissa Bastow

Tags back to school, early learning, educational fun, news, school

Silly Rhyming Kids Books That Are Fun to Read!

I wrote and illustrated TWO books!  They're about food - because food is life!   They're also silly, and rhyming, and fun, and they don't take very long to read.  So if you have one of those kids that's always like "Read it again!!!"  You can do that and it won't take very long at all! My first book "Potato Potato Potato" was one of those middle of the night inspirations.  I couldn't sleep.  It was 2:00 AM.  I started thinking about potatoes.  All the thoughts rhymed.  And viola, A BOOK WAS BORN!!! My most recently published book "I Like to...


Word Families - AP and ED

Melissa Bastow

Tags early learning, educational fun, school

The animals that my son chose for these word families were a pig and a bee.  He really likes choosing the animals and while I see no logic in his choices, I'm sure they totally work in his cute little 5 year old brain. You can get these printables for free by right clicking on the images below and selecting save or print from the pop up menu. I suggest printing these on white cardstock, they just work so much better than regular (thin) paper.  You can use these in your classroom or at home, but please don't share the...


Word Families - AN and ET

Melissa Bastow

Tags early learning, educational fun, school

Word Families - AN and ET

I've decided to back off of word families for a bit with my son's learning.  Which is the beauty of homeschool - if you're feeling overwhelmed then change what you're doing!  We're still learning LOTS and will throw in a word family or two when we're having a particular ambitious week. Here are some free printables so you can practice the AN and ET word families too!  Just right click on the images below and click save or print. I hope these help your little learners as much as they help mine!  You can use these free printable as much as...


Short U Worksheet

Melissa Bastow

Tags early learning, educational fun, school

Short U Worksheet

For CVC practice last week in our little kindergarten homeschool we covered the short U sound.  I've found that repetition is key when it comes this whole "teaching a little person how to read" thing.  Who knew?  (Like every teacher ever?!)  So we watch a lot of videos, do a lot of writing practice, and play a lot of games.  Plus we read.  And read.  And read.  And then when he's finally like, "Can I just do science already?!!"  I figure we've done enough repetitious practice. If you'd like to practice with your kid (or class) here's a free worksheet...