Unless you've been living under a rock or in a cave, you probably already know, it's freaking cold outside, so I will spare you the obligatory "wow, what about this weather" frivolities and get right to the good stuff.
So, I have this small stash of old Lavazza espresso cans that I've been dying to put to good use when I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest, only they used an old oatmeal box, but trust me, that's a horrible idea, because it gets wet and kinda just wilts. The birds are sad, the kids who made the flimsy bird feeder are sad, it's just not good, so use an old coffee can instead. There really is no hard and fast way to do this. It's fairly straight forward. Using a can opener, remove the bottom of the can and smooth any rough edges with sand paper or an emery board. Wrap the can in a fun patterened duct tape. Cut the top in half and hot glue to the lip of the can, making sure to get a good, solid bond
Using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, make a small slit in the lid (after the glue is dry) and insert a popsicle stick in each side. Run a piece of yarn or string through the top and tie in a secure knot.
Fill with bird seed, hang from a secure location and sit back and wait for your feathered friends to pay you a visit and repay your kindness by pooping on your patio.
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In celebration of the August 12th release of Disney's new film, "Pete's Dragon", I have some awesome educational activity sheets to share with you guys. *Click This Poster to Open the Activity Pack* This packet contains 12 pages of instructions and activities for parents and educators that are perfectly aligned with the movie. Everything from a dot-to-dot puzzle to a dragon hunt, there are lots of activities to keep your little explorer busy, while "growing their brain".
DISCLAIMER: A huge "Thank You" to World Market for sponsoring today's post.
Can you believe Easter is less than two weeks away?! Only twelve more days until the kids can get all dressed up in their finest clothes, fix their hair just right, grab a pail and shove their younger cousins out of the way, in hopes of scoring the coveted, second to none, peanut butter egg... Ok, maybe that's just me, but I digress.
Whether you will be entertaining kids at your Easter dinner or you are just young at heart, World Market has all the essentials you need to set a fun, whimsical table that will be a hit with all your guests from one to a hundred and one. (Anyone older or younger probably won't enjoy these suggestions, you can stop reading now)
When choosing Easter decor items for a kids' table, keep a few things in mind. Most of all, it has to be fun and second, it has to be practical. No huge vases of flowers that might get knocked over and nothing that might get eaten by a curious little one and use lots of colored eggs, you can never go wrong with pretty colored eggs.
Since kids are very visual and tactile creatures, I used a lot of textures and added some bright colors for this look. Everything pictured is a kid-friendly material; plastic or melamine, with the egg-ception of the Nestler egg cups, which are earthenware.
1. Twig Nests
Before the little cottontails start hopping down your bunny trail, head over to your local World Market and grab a few goodies to make your Easter a fun, memorable occasion, but before you go, check out this fun sweepstakes with 4 $250 gift cards up for grabs.
If you need even more Easter inspiration, check out these other amazing World Market Tribe members' posts...
We're about 9 weeks into our homeschool year and all over the FB groups and such, I am seeing a lot of "Homeschool Mom Burnout", HMB for short. (I just made that up) Moms who are ready to give up and ship their sweet little hellions back to public school. Don't give up yet, Mama. With a few tips and tricks, you can turn that frown upside down and start to enjoy homeschooling again.
The key to a having a good morning, is to start at night.
1. Make sure they get plenty of rest the night before. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean put them to bed at dusk, if that works for you, fine, if not, that's fine too, just make sure they get enough rest, so they can focus the next day. 2. Make them eat some kind of breakfast. Something. In their belly. Not junk. I get it, some kids are just not morning people, or afternoon people, but your body didn't get the memo and it wants food. Break it down for them, explain it to them like this... Your body is like a car, it needs fuel to work properly. It's been at least 8 hours since your last fill up and your "car" is empty. Then proceed to feed them something with some kind of nutritional value... scrambled eggs, toast, oatmeal, something. 3. Set the mood for the day. No, I don't mean dim the lights and light some candles, unless that helps, then, by all means... I mean if you are in a good mood, they will be too and vice versa. If you are excited about learning, they will be also. You are their barometer as to how the day will go. 4. Tell them exactly what you expect and give them an outline for the day. I find if a kid knows what they need to do, they will pretty much do it, but if they are left to their own devices, they would probably read a book and doodle all day. When you start "school", let them know, "We will do this, this and this, then we will take a break and have lunch.". Then, their brains go ahead and accept it and start to move on.
5. Be prepared. I can not express how much this one has helped me. Last year, we were mostly just winging it. I had some really fun workbooks and we went to the library a lot and we did other fun stuff, but this year, I decided to really get organized and it has helped me (and Micah) immensely.
Being organized doesn't have to be hard or complicated. You don't have to use some elaborate book and system with stickers and colors for every day and all that mess (unless that works for you, then, by all means, color code away). For me, simple is better. Maybe if I had multiple children that would be necessary, but with just one, I find this method works amazingly well.
For this schedule thingy, I used a calendar from Dollar Tree and some Post-Its. I wrote each subject on a Post-It, so he would know exactly what we were doing each day. I let him choose which subject to start first and as we finish, I let him pull the Post-It off. It's simple, but for us, it works. You could always add to this and write each assignment, for an older kid who is able to work independently.
As you can see, this is a very basic student agenda from Dollar Tree. It has just enough room for me to write down a brief description of what we are doing in each subject, each day, with room left over for extra curricular activities.
When I got the agenda, I took about two hours and sat down with my Little House 123 lesson plans and wrote out everything for a 9 week period. It was a bit tedious for my ADD brain, but I got through it and I can not tell you how much easier my whole day is now. Seriously.
The Little House curriculum has been amazing for me. I am not very good at lesson planning. I will find a million fun things to do, but none of them tie-in to each other, so it all ends up being a weird, jumbled mess of random information, I get frustrated, give up and we end up reading five books and calling it "school". That was last year. This year has been soooo much different. Each day, I look in my handy dandy book and I see what I need to do and we do it. No whining, no fussing, no crying. (I'm still working on Micah though) *rim shot*..... *crickets* Jokes aside, Micah has really taken to this curriculum. I love that it utilizes videos, because Micah is a very visual learner so this is perfect for him, especially since he figured out how to stream them to the living room TV, via the Xbox. We can sit on the couch, in our Pjs and "do school". How cool is that?!
I also feel that a routine is key to having a (relatively) stress free morning. Notice I didn't say a schedule. Routine is different. Schedule is: "We must do this at 8:01 or else puppies will die!" No, That sucks. Don't do that to your kids. Isn't part of the fun of homeschooling, the luxury to do things at your own pace?!
Do something fun in the morning to get the day started off right. (and get those bodies moving) I have recently been introduced to a fun (read as: low impact for Mom's old bones) yoga series for kids, Cosmic Kids Yoga. Micah loves this and will actually participate without whining. Cosmic Kids also has a "Zen Den" series which I really love. It's a series of videos that help children focus, be more mindful and have better coping skills. I have actually listened to several of them and found them very relaxing and helpful. (and short-ish, which is great for my ADD brain)
This is one of my favorite ones. In this video she refers to the smell of fresh popcorn and I just happened to find a caramel popcorn candle at the Dollar store. One morning, Micah was being especially jerk-ish, so I lit the candle and we watched this video together and it really helped him to refocus and relax. (and Mom too)
What I'm really saying, as I ramble on is: find what works for you and don't get discouraged if it takes you a little while to figure it all out. It took me a year to find my groove and realize I wasn't like other homeschool Moms and that's OK. In that year that I was "screwing up", Micah learned to read and spell. Yes, my five year old reads and spells better than most second graders. Somehow, someway, the learning happens, whether you are using an Erin Condren planner or just flying by the seat of your pants, so keep on keepin' on, Mama. You got this! DISCLAIMER: I was provided with a complimentary subscription to ArtSquish, in exchange for my honest opinion. When I decided to homeschool, I didn't really know exactly what I was getting myself into. I joined a few homeschool groups on Facebook, I did some online research (by "some research", I mean I spent hours and hours online looking through info and resources) and I finally decided there was really no way of knowing if I could do it, until I just jumped in and tried. It's not that I really have anything against public schools per se, I just think Micah will thrive better in this setting and so far, he has. He just turned five in August and can already read most any word you put in front of him. He is an amazing speller and loves to learn about science-y stuff. He's not too keen on writing, yet and that's OK. I know in time it will become something that he will grasp, but until then, we are focusing on doing a lot of fun, artsy things, to build his fine motor skills and to let him get used to the feel of implements in his hand. When I was doing my research, I found tons of curriculum choices and for the most part, they were all pretty similar. They all had the basics, Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, but most of them lacked any Art lessons.
I am not what one would consider a very artsy person. I love and can appreciate all kinds of art, but when it comes to making my own... stick men give me problems, so I knew I would have to "outsource", if I wanted to include art in our homeschool. Lucky for me (and Micah), I was introduced to ArtSquish.
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with complimentary tickets and lodging in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.
When I was planning our recent trip to The Smokies, I knew it had to be extra special, as this would probably be the last vacation we would take as a complete family, since we would be dropping Kaylee off in Knoxville, for her freshman year of college at the end of our trip.
I knew we wanted to stay in a relaxed atmosphere, a place with lots of amenities and something fun for the little one. I Googled, I scoured all the review sites, I compared and I finally found a place that had everything we wanted, the room to spread out that we needed and was within close proximity to all the fun stuff in the Smokies. Say "Hello" to the RiverStone Resort, in Pigeon Forge, TN.
I gave you a little bit of background info on RiverStone, but I had to share some of the pictures I took while we were there, to show the full extent of how nice this place really is. Imagine waking up to this beautiful, expansive golf course, every morning and sipping coffee, while sitting on your private patio.
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