This is a good site, definitely worth a visit.

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I came across a wonderful resource called “Preschool Activities in a Bag” several months ago when I heard the author’s speak at the Ultimate Home School Expo 2007. It seemed like a great thing for our family so I decided to purchase the book and follow their directions to hold a swap.

About the Book:

The book was written by two home schooling moms and covers 34 different activities that can be done by preschoolers. The book comes in two forms a physical book and eBook (electronic book). I purchased the ebook format since I thought that medium would be best to print things out, it’s turned out to be very helpful.

The activities:

The activities in the book cover many different subjects that preschoolers will be learning; the alphabet, color recognition, shapes, sorting, etc. The preschool bags are stored in gallon size plastic zip lock freezer bags. You can have your children scheduled to do them at specified times or pull one out when you need some time to finish a project. You only need to spend a little time initially explaining the activities to your child after that they should be able to do the them on their own.

A swap?

I knew there was no way I could do 34 different activities by myself (I’m crafty but not that crafty!) so I decided to do a swap where we each do one activity multiplied by however many that participate in the group. Their suggestion of having 3 weeks to complete your activities was perfect, after the 3 weeks are over you get together, swap and go home with all different activities.

My experience as a coordinator:

It was very easy to coordinate the swap. The book had excellent directions for the coordinator and swap participants to follow to complete their activities. I don’t think that the author’s counted on communication being done by email since the eBook directs you to mail each participants pages to them. I knew that would never work for me so I ended up doing the whole thing via email which worked great for our busy mostly home schooling moms group. I virtual printed and converted to pdf each page the person needed for their activity and emailed it to them. I did not send them the whole book since that would be in violation of the author’s copyrights (not to mention stealing!) The participants were then able to print the pages just for their activities out via their printer at home and we all saved a ton of time by not having to go to Kinkos!

There ended up being 10 of us who participated my swap. Since it was hard for everyone to be able to make one day to do the swap I decided the “drop n’ swap” worked best for us. I set a date that participants had to get their bags to me by. I took all the dropped off bags, set up 10 paper grocery bags on my dining room table and did the swap at home. The participants came and picked up their swapped bags at their convenience.

I found the book was very easy to follow, activities were inexpensive and easy to make and on the whole I’m excited at the activities that we all received. My three oldest children (ages 6-2) are enjoying “playing” (and learning!) with the bags. So it’s not only for preschoolers, the older ones can have fun and work with the smaller children to complete the activities.

Most of the ladies in my group are excited to possibly do another swap in the Winter and/or Spring of ‘08. My only improvement on the book would be to implement Biblical content into their activities.

If you want more information on Preschool Activities in a Bag see these links:

www.activitybags.com

I purchased the eBook from Home School e Store click here to go to the product page. They only sell electronic formatted books at GREAT prices!

That Name above every other name, the name of Jesus is what it’s all about! Phil 2:5-9

Psalm 1 says this:

Ps 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.

Ps 1:3 He will be like a tree FIRMLY PLANTED by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Ps 1:4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Ps 1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Ps 1:6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.