In past years Cutie Pie has taken part in the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading club. I didn’t realize until this year that there are several other programs like this to help promote summer reading! (Ahem, I mean other than the public library, but we all go there regularly in the summer, right? Seriously, we …
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Summer Reading
Summer break begins for us this coming Tuesday. I know many of you are already well into your summer breaks and I hope you are having fun! If you’re doing anything super fun, let us know in the comments! In anticipation of the boys being home for ten weeks while my husband and I trade …
15 Great Dinosaur Books – needs pic
Cutie Pie loves his dinosaur books still, even though he’s really into dragons. With so many books about dinosaurs on our shelves, I thought I’d compile a list of the dinosaur books from our ‘little’ collection for you. I’m sure most of these are in your public library – maybe some are more popular than others. …
Marbled Easter Egg Decorations
Have you decorated for Easter? (Do you even do that? I only ask because we never really decorate for any holiday other than Christmas – and of course birthdays!) This is a simple activity that you can do with kids of any age. We first made Marble Art about 5 years ago, when Cutie Pie was three, …
Playing in a new space
I posted a little while ago about playing a game by other rules. What if we extend this idea to playing with other things in different ways? What about playing in a new space with an old toy? Will it lead to discovery and exploration? You bet ya! New Play Space Suggestion The other day …
Puffy Painting
Do your kiddos like painting? Have they tried puffy painting yet? This is another activity we did a while back and brought out again when it was definitely indoor weather! (My original post about it is here. The post that originally inspired me to do this activity is here on Making Memories with Your Kids from back in …
It’s OK to ask for help
Coming upstairs I could hear Sweet Pea trying to open his bedroom door. I gave the knob a turn to help and saw him with his messy bed hair stooped over trying desperately to hold onto about 15 of his lovies while also trying to scoop up another. Isn’t this just like how we often …
DIY Spring Bird Feeders
…and you can find a bag of birdseed anywhere… -from Tom T. Hall’s song Everybody Loves to Hear a Bird Sing We made spring bird feeders the other day. Crazy, I know, since there is still about 3 feet of snow on the ground, but we are beginning to see and hear some birds around! …
Dressing for the cold weather
Hopefully spring is on it’s way, but all of this bitterly cold weather has me still thinking about dressing warmly! I’m going to share what I wear in these temperatures as well as some safety tips for playing outside with the kids (because we know it’s not good to be outside for very hat has been …
Get Creative at (link)
Last week I showed photos of our winter break. There was one creative activity that I just had to come back and share with you. Doodle Cubes*** from Babble Dabble Do! Coloring these was sort of a cathartic exercise for me, so I decided to post it today, a day of the week I usually …
Fill in the Blanks
Have you heard of Mad Libs? (They are fairly inexpensive as you can see by following this affiliate link.) You can make this similar quick writing activity geared towards younger elementary kids for when you just need a few minutes to finish something up if you don’t have any handy! This activity can also reinforce …
A Game by Other Rules
Gramma’s visits always give us several opportunities to play games. On this occasion, Sweet Pea pulled out Fish, a cute card set with pictures of fish which you can either play Memory or Go Fish with. the Twist…Sweet Pea made up his own rules to Go Fish! His rules included everyone getting the number of …
Snow-covered yard
I look out the window at a snow-covered yard. Pristine. Not a single footprint. It’s like looking at a picture of a dessert when the wind is still. The shadow from the tree looks like a picture. Cold, white, smooth. Did I mention cold? I stand and wonder when the peaceful display before me will …
Winter break fun
Winter break is supposed to be filled with cold and fun in this part of the country (Rochester, NY area), however this break has been a little too much for us! I don’t mean to complain, I know there are a lot of others who have much more snow and have been experiencing much colder …
St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Science (#2)
There are many ways to create fun St. Patrick’s Day rainbows on your own. This post describes one way and today I’m sharing another! Another simple science experiment way to do this is to use a flashlight, a round container and a square container (like a plastic storage container).
Morning Routine – time to change it?
Last week we looked briefly at daily rhythms, daily routines, and weekly rhythms and saw they can really help ourselves and our families. Today is just a little reminder to take inventory of one little space in your day, if you haven’t already! What does your morning routine look like? Getting yourself ready should be part …
Weekly Rhythms in Planning your days
Sometimes we try hard to make our activities fit into a certain routine. It might be easier to alter when we do certain activities to make things flow better. We’ve been talking about daily routines/daily rhythms this week. But what about weekly rhythms?
Daily Rhythm and Meal Planning
It is so important to include meal planning in your daily rhythm. When you review your two weeks on the daily time tracker I provided yesterday, you will undoubtedly notice you spend time preparing meals regularly! Why not make this part of your day by planning for it? There are so many meal planning resources …
Daily Rhythm
Do you have a routine to your day? Some sort of routine that you follow so your kids know what to do and what to expect everyday? I like to call it our daily rhythm. My Cutie Pie has always been a creature of routine. Now that he’s in school the routine has changed but …
Paper Hearts for Valentine’s Day
We all know Valentine’s Day is coming up, so I’m sharing a very simple paper heart craft from my childhood today! I think we called these Magic Hearts when I was little. All you’ll need is a sheet of both red and white construction paper, scissors, a paint brush, and vinegar. First, cut out your …
Dreams are Real
Mom’s Monday Post! Mondays I post specifically to encourage moms. It’s encouragement for whatever stage you are in right now, because it is focusing on you, not your little (or not so little) ones. Take a few minutes to yourself and ponder today’s post. Several months ago now, I watched a few videos provided by …
Valentine’s Day Sun Catchers
A very simple, fun craft involving hearts, a little scissor work and creative coloring/drawing is on tap today. It’s a bright, sunny day here, and these Valentine’s Day Sun Catchers are the perfect thing to catch the sun as it streams in the windows! You’ll only need a few items: Paper Vegetable oil (any kind) …
A Mom’s Morning Routine
Have you noticed that every Monday I’ve been trying to bring you a mom-centered post? I am all for sharing ideas for our kiddos, but I think we need to nourish ourselves as moms, too! Do you have a morning routine? I don’t mean trying to get the breakfast on the table and the kids …
Indoor Letter Hopscotch
The nice thing about having a large set of foam letters as well as a small set, is that you can play indoor letter hopscotch by making dice with the smaller set and have a gross motor activity for indoors when it is too cold to go out! (The boys have been stuck inside due …
Be Intentional about Playtime
Last week I invited you to join me in making our lives a little more positive, being more prepared for each day. More ‘intentional’ if you will. This is the first post in this series which I will bring to you every Monday for several weeks. Paula at Beauty through Imperfection posted last year that …
The New Beginning
Starting the New Year like a New Beginning In past years I printed out the little forms for everyone to fill out on New Year’s Day and this year was no different. (I used these cute forms from Thirty Handmade Days this year!) For myself, I focus on trying to figure out if I actually accomplished …
Accomplishments
How do you feel when one of your kids accomplishes something? Do you shout it from the mountain tops or quietly revel in pride? Do you fear gushing about it will make them self-conscious? Or not speaking up about it will make them strive to work harder for the next goal? Praising our children for …
Christmas Traditions
It seems like every family celebrates Christmas in some way in their home, whether atheist, Jewish, African or Christ followers. Each involves traditions of some sort. (I'm not going to go into semantics here.) In our home, we try to celebrate Jesus' birth and our love for each other. We incorporate going to church and …
More Homemade Christmas Ornaments
Continuing with the idea of homemade Christmas ornaments, here are some baked dough ornaments we made and adorned to use as gifts. Being a rubber stamper/card maker in my pre-child years (honestly, where does my time go that I cannot craft?!) I pulled out my stamps after the kids cut simple Christmas shapes out …
One way to ease home-from-school-time
When the kids first went back to school I was having a really hard time when they came home at the end of their school day. I was in my own world while they were gone. It was quiet, peaceful. The kiddos would get off the bus, come inside and ~ LOUDNESS! My oasis was …
The Buffalo Zoo Day Trip
The Buffalo Zoo is only about an hour away, but it’s taken us until this summer to take a day trip there with the boys. It was such a great day! The weather was perfect and it was just the activity to keep Sweet Pea engaged, but not participating in the activities he was restricted …
They’re so little
Sweet Pea has been doing really well going to school, actually excitedly, on the school bus. A few times, though I’ve taken them, instead. He doesn’t do as well on those mornings. That separation anxiety roars its head again. My heartstrings don’t want to let him go when I see his shoulders slump and hear …
Our Mom Expectations
I had a nice chat with one of my friends this morning. It was one of those ‘mom’ chats, where you cram everything and anything in because you don’t have kids with you and you have a lot of words to use since you’ll be alone the rest of the day sort of chats. The …
When they hurt
Today I sent my five year old off to school limping. I hesitated, but know his history of overreacting. I feel like a rotten Momma for not being able to discern whether he is truly in pain or just giving me a show. I also have my seven year old on the couch complaining of …
Are You a Hidden Mom?
For the past seven years I’ve been a mom. That was my main occupation. I was no longer a Medical Transcriptionist, or a Women’s Ministry Leader. My focus was within my home, on my kids and husband. I was a hidden mom, as Emily Wierenga posting at The Better Mom calls it. “As mothers we …