The Berenstain Bears' Please and Thank You Book Review and Giveaway

Teaching your child manners can sometimes be difficult. The Berenstain Bears' Please & Thank You Book helps reinforce those manners that you are teaching to your child. In this small board book, Brother, Sister, and Honey have almost forgotten their manners. Don't worry, Mama reminds them to say please when wanting something, thank you after receiving something, and you're welcome after helping someone.

My (almost) four year old loved this book. She has wanted me to read it to her almost everyday since receiving the book. After I read it, she goes around the house saying, "Please, thank you, you're welcome."

Stan and Jan Berenstain introduced the first Berenstain Bear books in 1962 and the Bear family celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012! Here the charming and lovable Bear family is once again introducing children to the typical issues and questions that they face every day.  

In The Berenstain Bears’ Please & Thank You Book, little readers are introduced to the importance of manners, through gentle reminders given to Brother, Sister, and Honey as they await their milk and cookies. The short story and well-loved characters provide toddlers a perfect introduction to valuable life lessons and routines. 

About the author:
Mike Berenstain grew up watching his parents work together to write about and draw these lovable bears. Eventually he started drawing and writing about them too. Though Stan died in 2005 and Jan in 2012, Mike carries on his parents’ love of creating Berenstain Bear stories from southeastern Pennsylvania, which looks a lot like Bear Country.

Please enter the giveaway for your own copy of The Berenstain Bears' Please & Thank You Book using the rafflecopter below.

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Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

U Is for Umbrella

Sigh. I think I have been homeschooling too long when all I can think of for the letter u is "U is for Umbrella." Yes, we used Abeka for kindergarten for three children so far and I am now teaching my three year old using Abeka phonics. So, I will definitely have "U is for Umbrella" on my mind for many years to come.

Since I have "U is for Umbrella" on my mind, I decided to create a free printable to go along with the letter U.

Download the free printable here.

Learning Numbers ~ Free Printable

I will begin teaching my 3 year old daughter her numbers and letters this coming year. She already knows a few letters and can count to 10. I've been looking for some number activities, but really haven't found anything I like. I made some number cards and decided to share them with you.

They have the number on one card and an object on another card of that number. I plan to laminate mine and cut them apart to use for learning and as a matching game. I only did numbers 1-10 for right now.

You can click here or click the image above for the free printable.

ARTistic Pursuits: The Way They See It ~ Review

Many of the reviews that I do are geared for my older children. My three year old sometimes feels left out. She loves to color, draw, and paint. When I saw that ARTistic Pursuits was an upcoming review, I started praying that there would be something on the list especially for preschoolers. When I actually saw that the preschool book, The Way They See It (Preschool), was a choice, I started praying again. I knew my three year old would love this book.

What is ARTistic Pursuits?

ARTistic Pursuits is an art curriculum designed for homeschoolers. They want children to be creative while also learning how to observe things. They combine all of the components of fine art by engaging the students as they explore the different aspects of art.







ARTistic Pursuits offers curriculum for Preschool through High School.They have also recently just released two brand new books about Sculpture Technique: Construct and Sculpture Technique: Model.

The preschool book, The Way They See It, which I reviewed with my three year old, is geared for children ages 3-5. It sells for $47.95. This book contains 26 lessons plus 10 additional projects.























This book is spiral bound, soft cover, and has many colorful illustrations. It includes a table of contents page that lists all of the lessons. It also includes a materials page that lists all of the materials needed for the entire book. You can also purchase a Preschool Art Pack from their website if you are not able to find the materials where you live.

How I used The Way They See It:

When the book first arrived, I glanced through it to see the different lessons. My daughter is a young three having just turned three in March, so I wanted to make sure the lessons would not be too difficult. The only thing that caught my attention was the usage of scissors (I'll tell you about this later). Everything else seemed fun and easy enough for her to do.

 Each lesson has three parts: Grown-up Talk, Picture Talk, and Art Project. (As seen to the left the project is called Discover Art Project.)

I would read the Grown-up talk ahead of time, usually the night before I did the art lesson with my daughter.

The next day, I would sit down with her and discuss the picture under Picture Talk. There are question prompts for you to ask your child. My daughter is observant and could point out most of the things in the picture that was being asked. For example, "A little bug crawls out of one of the flowers. Can you find it?" She looked all over the picture until she saw the little bug crawling out of the flower.

The final part of the lesson was the art project. These can be anywhere from coloring to painting to sculpting with play-dough.  My daughter loved doing the art projects. She would get so excited when I pulled everything out.We did a lesson a week.

This project the child was suppose to draw a picture in the paint with their fingers, but she didn't quite understand even after I showed her. I just let her have fun doing her own thing.

Here she was to create something out of play-dough. We made our own play-dough from a website I found in a Google search. I didn't have cream of tartar so I needed a recipe that didn't use one. I found a fast and easy play-dough recipe on From The Mrs. blog.

Making her creation. And in case you haven't noticed, her favorite color is yellow. :)

Her play-dough creation!
















Finally, about the scissors. The lessons at the end of the book are called First Skills. It mentions using scissors, how to hold a pencil, gluing and taping, and paint brushes. I went to the store and was going to just buy some blunt tip scissors. When I was looking at the scissors, I noticed that they had come out with scissors that have a spring action (see below).


I decided to go ahead and buy them and see how she handled them. It took her a few times of me showing her how to hold them properly, but she got the hang of it and can now cut great using these scissors.









My opinion of The Way They See It:

My daughter and I loved this book. She would start jumping up and down getting excited when I pulled the book and the materials out for the day. I liked how the lessons are set up. They are so simple to follow and it gets the parent and child to interact with each other. I also liked that they would ask specific questions about the pictures/paintings in the book that made the child really have to look at each and observe what was going on. I also liked that the art projects were fairly simple. I would definitely give this preschool curriculum 5 stars!

Another Preschool Coloring Freebie

Click here (or the picture above for the new preschool coloring freebie ~ purple, orange, brown, and black. Enjoy.

Click here for red, blue, yellow, and green if you missed out on it from earlier.


This post is part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew Free Printables Roundup:

Preschool Freebie

I am in the process of getting all of the kids work ready for our new school year. I do have some curriculum for my 2 year old, but needed some coloring pages that introduce each color. I have made a color page for red, blue, yellow, and green. I plan on adding more color pages as I get more work ready. 

Click here (or the picture above to get the freebie. Enjoy!


This post is a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew Free Printable Roundup: