Littles Learning Link Up: December 29, 2015 Happy New Year

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

Well, when it comes to school time, not much. We had a lovely Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. We had been decorating and enjoying our time with Melk the Christmas monkey, as well as visits from family. We are enjoying our time off of structured school time. and are looking forward to our New Year's Eve celebration. We have our traditions, such as our Countdown Clock that we are looking forward to doing, and I would love to add at least one thing new this year. I have so many to choose from though. Did you see last week's Child Friendly New Year's Eve Celebration Round Up? So many great ideas!! If you are looking for some new activities to make New Year's eve special, I invite you to go check it out.

I just wanted to take this time now to thank everyone for their participation in Littles Learning Link Up. Whether you have been faithfully joining in from the beginning, perhaps even as far back as when it was Toddler Idea Tuesday, or if you have just recently found me, I appreciate your participation. I enjoy seeing all the great ideas for young children. I do apologize for not always commenting, as I have been a bit overwhelmed (in a good way) with all the link ups. I promise to do better in the new year.

Thanks again, and Happy New Year!

(See you in 2016)

A couple of things I wanted to let you know:

1. I am lining up my guest posts for the new year. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions. 
2. Next week's post will be a Snowman Round-Up. If you have any posts you would like to have included please let me know. Please understand I may not include all of the posts that are shared. Please make sure to comment or email me regarding the round up. A photo from your post will possibly be included in the post and/or the collage, and I will be linking back to your post. 

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 16 wonderful posts linked up! 

I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

Don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's Randomly Selected Post is: 

Thaleia from Something 2 Offer shared Gingerbread Man Kindergarten Math Facts.

Here is the top clicked-on post:

Kelly from Raising Samuels shared Homeschool Week 15: North America.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- December 29, 2015

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Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on  Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups. 

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would  like to follow the  hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaway

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials US only Ends 12/31

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

An InLinkz Link-up

H is for...Hands-On Halves

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this great weekly party called Blogging Through the Alphabet. All are welcome to join in, just make sure to keep your posts family-friendly. I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every intention to post something each week.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

I have found there is a huge benefit in this strategy. I am remembering  ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

Several years ago, during our letter H week, I made the girls a fun, beginner way to play with fractions.

H is for. . . Hands-On Halves

I originally called this activity "Matching Halves" but Hands-On Halves sounded better for an "H is for..." post. I made some square and rectangle boards that included half of the image blank, while the other half had construction paper attached. I did this by cutting the construction paper into either a square or rectangle. Then I traced it onto a piece of white paper (in hindsight, cardstock would be more sturdy). I then cut the shape in half and attached half, while leaving the other half for the girls to use to find the matches. No printer required.

I laid the white half bases in a circle, placing the colored halves in the center and they had to match them up.

Throwback Thursday Blog-Style #79: December 24, 2015

Welcome back to... 

I know, I know, Throwback Thursday seems to be all about sharing pictures from the past, great memories that mean something to you, that you would like to share with others. At least that is how it appears to me. Throwback Thursday wasn't something I was participating in, and then I came up with an idea.

I thought it would be great fun and a help to my blog to share old content, but not just any old content. Each week I will share an old blog post from a previous year, any year, BUT it has to be from the current week (for example, something I've posted around December 23rd, from any previous year)  I will go in, edit the post if needed, add a pinnable image if I don't already have one, and share it on Facebook.

I have reviewed some great products in the past (and continue to do so). I thought it would be a neat idea to choose review posts this year and highlight some of these great products again.

Would you like to join in? You do not need to edit your past post in any way, you don't need to create a pinnable image, though it couldn't hurt, in fact it will help your blog traffic to add quality pinnable images to your posts.

Just go into your archives, choose a favorite post from this current week from any previous year, and link it up below. (If you don't have anything from this current week, it is still okay to link up with a post from a previous year around this time.)

I will be pinning posts to my appropriate Pinterest boards and will be randomly selecting a Featured Throwback Thursday post to share next week. Just a note, I will be sharing a picture from your post if you are selected as the featured post, but I will link back to your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. By linking up you are giving me permission to use your picture in the post. 

Here is my Throwback Thursday post:

Originally posted December 23rd, 2014
Hands-On Animal Exploration with Animal Trackers Club {A Review}

Here is this week's randomly selected

Featured Throwback Thursday:

Brenda from Counting Pinecones shared:

Yeehaw for Gyros (Throwback Thursday)

To participate, link up below. It would be great if you could visit several of the other posts that have linked up. Stop by, comment, and pin images so we can help each other.

If you would like to help spread the news:

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Happy Throwback Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday: December 23, 2015 (w/linky) - Finally, Some Snow!

And if anyone is jealous of our snow, don't worry, you don't have to be. It is now gone. The temperature has been in the 50's and we have been getting rain. Looks like it is NOT going to be a white Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas!

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

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An InLinkz Link-up