Hey all!  Sorry it’s been SO long since I have posted.  It’s been a little crazy around here with the holidays and preparing for baby O.  Can’t believe I’m already in my third trimester.

So no lesson ideas for today, but wanted to share what I made for Reagan’s teacher for Valentine’s Day.  I have been in the process of getting an etsy store up, and personalized clipboards are one of the first items I have to offer!

As a teacher, I used clipboards all the time and for so many different reasons.  While I was still teaching I made them for my whole team one year.  What a hit!  Below is an example of the one for Reagan’s teacher.  They are super durable, double sided and can be totally customized.  I will also attach a FREE PRINTABLE  to the cute little Valentine’s tag I attach to the clipboard.

To buy your own personalized clipboard for your favorite teacher or coach, check out my etsy store!

Click HERE for your FREE PRINTABLE!

Now that my toddler has become a preschooler, my structure for learning at home seemed to be falling short.  So what does that mean? Should I just quit doing lessons at home? No! It just means I needed to find a new way to make our home lessons more meaningful and convenient.

I absolutely love my daughter’s preschool, and even more important, SHE LOVES IT!  So I decided to find a way to compliment her learning at school with additional activities at home.  Her teacher has great weekly themes, which provides me the opportunity to build on them.  

In addition, I started reading a book called The Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies. This book gave me an idea on how to structure my home learning activities.  I am now creating activities that stay within our weekly theme, but let her have more independence.

My New Structure

It still all starts with books!  I see what books I currently have at home which fit within the theme.  Then, I check out additional books from the library.  My goal is to have around 10 books for the week. These are displayed on the top on the table I use to organize my whole week of tot activities.  

Under the books you will notice I have 4 colorful tubs, each with a lid.  I just bought these on Amazon and LOVE them! They are very study, plenty big to fit multiple materials, and fit in my shelf perfectly.  This is where I place the 4 themed activities for the week. I introduce these to my daughter so that she knows what is expected, but then they are available for her to practice at her choosing.  

Reasons I LOVE this new structure:

1. Easy-  I clean out the tubs on Sunday and load them up with 4 new activities for the upcoming week.  I usually do a quick Pinterest search to get ideas and then pull together what I need to place in the tubs.  Then, no real work for the whole week!
2. Flexibility- I would love to say that tot school fits in my schedule every day when I have it in my calendar, but that just isn’t realistic.  By having everything already prepped and in the tubs, we can do a quick lesson whenever we have 20-30 minutes to fill.  
3. Independence- My daughter loves that these tubs are ready and at her level.  Once I have introduced the activity, she can just pull a tub and do the activity on her own.  She is getting very good at taking out a tub, playing with it, then cleaning it up before returning it to the shelf.  
4. Appealing- As I was reading The Montessori Toddler, I learned more about the importance of making the learning area look interesting yet simple.  My daughter is more drawn to these 10 books that I display than the hundreds of other books in our house. These 4 tubs, that she knows have fun activities, are more exciting to her than her toy room full of things.  The simple and predictable arrangement is very inviting.
5. Organized- If you can’t tell from my previous blogs, I love structure and organization.  With this model, everything has a place to be kept, thus a place to be returned when done!

 

This blog entry may seem a little overwhelming, but I think it will be pretty easy to understand once you see how I structured this week’s activities with a Halloween theme.  

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, but finding a new system that worked well took some time.  Now that I have settled on something that I enjoy and works well for us, I plan to get back to posting more regularly!

 

As most of you know, I was a teacher before deciding to take some time off to raise my daughter.  I loved my job, and fully intend on getting back to the classroom someday. However, in the meantime, I want to make sure my daughter’s teachers know how appreciated they are by our family.  

Most teachers don’t do it for the money!  And if they do it for the money, I want to know what district they are working for 😉  I loved teaching because I felt like I was making a difference. When I was finally able to help a child understand something that they had been struggling with for a while, their accomplishment was also my accomplishment.  I loved being creative and getting to teach students through alternative teaching styles and helping them to become better communicators. Some days in the classroom felt magical when everything fell into place!

Yet, that is NOT how everyday goes!  There are days where your lessons fall apart, students have behavior problems, or you literally get puked on!  Yes, these are the realities of being in the classroom. So besides loving your job most of the time, and feeling like you are making a difference, what else makes a teacher happy? 

Random surprises!

I always loved when parents would send in a little note of appreciation or gift to show that they recognized the time you spent with their child.  Now I am not saying teachers are looking for an expensive gift or an over the top gesture. Just something little that shows you recognize their efforts and appreciate their dedication.

This week I sent my daughter’s teacher and the assistant in the class a small pumpkin spice candle with a note attached saying “Thanks for helping me FALL in love with learning”.  I got the candles from Target for $3 each. This was just a small token of appreciation, but my daughter’s teacher told me it made her day! Below I will attach the gift tags that I created if you want to so something similar for your child’s teacher!

Have you ever thought to send a small gift to a teacher on a random day?  Most of us know when Teacher Appreciation Week is, but I love little gifts just because!

I hesitated to post this one because I know most of you that see the title will not even read the article.  You will say to yourself, “I can just buy that!” And you know what, I used to say the same thing.  I totally understand!  However, one cold Illinois winter day last year I decided to make a batch with my daughter because we were hard up for entertainment.  I was honestly amazed at how easy it was, but what kept me making more was the fact that I liked the texture and smell of my homemade batch better than the store bought kind.  I read multiple recipes and ended up combining what a few people suggested to make my own.

So here is what you need to make a batch:

• 1 cup of flour
• ⅓ cup of salt
• 2 tsp of cream of tartar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil

Step 1: Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in pot.

Step 2: Add water with desired food coloring color mixed in and oil. (Some people say to add food coloring later, but if you add it to the water it mixes much more evenly!)  

Step 3: Turn stove burner to medium/low and stir constantly.  Within 2-3 minutes it will thicken and stick to your spoon like one big blob of play dough.

Step 4: You made it! Take it out to cool and once it doesn’t burn your hands to touch, knead it a little to make sure there are no lumps.

If you want to make a big batch of just one color you can double or triple the recipe.  I have done this if I am having a party where multiple kids will be playing with it. However, I usually like these smaller batches because I will make multiple batches in different colors.  This week we are learning about apples, so I wanted red, yellow, and green play dough. Once I had all the ingredients out and the pot dirty, I was able to make all 3 colors in about 15 minute!  

 

Check back later to see some ideas for having fun with apples!

Koala Crate: Rainbows

 

We received our first Koala Crate this month from Kiwi Co and I must say I was pretty impressed!  A good friend got Reagan a 3-month subscription for her birthday. I had looked at it online a few times, so I was very excited to see what it was all about.  This month’s theme was rainbows, so the “crate” included everything needed to complete 3 rainbow-themed art projects. Below is everything included:

Project 1: Sun Catcher

 

I have successfully completed sun catchers with Reagan in the past, but this kit made it EXTREMELY easy.  The contact paper was cut/framed, the tissue paper was already in squares, and the backing was easy to stick right on.  My daughter enjoyed this project and was able to do most of the work independently with NO MESS!

Project 2: Rainbow Tote Bag

 

This one turned out SO cute and was something I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.  You simply wet the tote bag, layout tissue paper squares on top of it, and use an eyedropper to drip water onto the tissue paper.  We chose to lay the squares out in rainbow order to it looked like a rainbow. The included dropper was a little difficult for my daughter, but with practice, she got the hang of it.  Once all the squares were wet you simply let it dry and add cloud stickers to complete.

Project 3: Cloud Pillow with Rainbow

This project turned out cute, but I wish there was a little more to it.  You start by peeling and sticking rainbow-colored semi-circles on top of each other to form a rainbow.  Then, you fill the pillow with fluff and velcro it closed. It is cute and my daughter is enjoying playing with it but wasn’t much of a craft.

Overall,  I was very excited about our first Koala Crate.  It had some easy, fun crafts that were very age-appropriate for toddlers.  I like that they have a central theme and a little magazine to go along with the activities.  If the next 2 crates are as good as the first we may turn it into a monthly subscription!

 

Do you get Koala Crate or any other products from Kiwi Co?  If so, I would love to hear what you think!

I am a routine person!  I like structure and a schedule.  It must be the teacher in me. During my years in the classroom, I became very good at lesson planning.  I would spend HOURS setting up my weekly schedule at the beginning of the year, but once I found a way to fit everything in, weekly planning was a breeze! Filling in what I would teach in every subject for the whole week only took about an hour!  

 I look at making a schedule for my now PRESCHOOLER the same way.  Once I find a way to fit everything in, life gets much easier. Do things come up?  Do plans ever change? Absolutely! Kids will get sick, family things come up, meltdowns happen, but I have found that having a schedule to fall back on makes everything run smoother.  So here is what our Fall will HOPEFULLY look like:

Reagan’s Fall Schedule 2019

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
7:00-8:00	Wake-Up: Get Dressed & Breakfast
8:00-9:00	Free Play	Free Play	Free Play	Mom Workout	Fam. Breakfast
9:00-10:00	Reagan Goes to Preschool	Tyke Yoga	Reagan Goes to Preschool	Errands	Reagan Goes to Preschool
10:00-11:00		Mom Workout		Ballet
11:00-12:00		Tot School		Tot School
12:00-1:00	Lunch / Free Play / TV Time
1:00-2:00	Reagan’s Nap Time
2:00-3:00
3:00-4:00	Flex Time: Errands, Playdates, Free Play, Etc.
4:00-5:00	Gymnastics	Swim Lessons	Flex Time (cont)
5:00-6:00	Dinner Time: Eat & Clean-Up Kitchen
6:00-7:00	Family Time: Bike Rides, Games, Puzzles, Crafts, Etc.
7:00-8:00	Bedtime Routine: Bath, Show, PJ, Books, Sleep

As you can probably tell, I like to be busy!  My daughter will be attending preschool 3 days a week this year, so that will give me more time to get things done around the house, hit the gym,  and run errands alone! 

 For extracurricular activities, Reagan will be doing swim, dance, yoga, and gymnastics.  This does seem like a lot, but we are going to give it a chance and see how it goes. If she doesn’t enjoy one of the activities, I am more than happy to drop one after the session is over.  

Tot School is little lessons I do at home with my daughter.  We have so much fun learning together that I didn’t want to stop just because she is going to preschool.  I will be sharing the activities that we do during these times on the blog.

If you have any questions, please let me know!  Happy Back-to-School!

As you know, I love a good theme, so when Reagan said she wanted an ice cream themed birthday party I was totally on board!  When planning a birthday party, or any party for that matter, I try to break it into categories. This makes the party planning easier and less stressful.  For this party, which I was hosting at our home, I needed: food, beverage, entertainment, decorations, and invitations.

Food:

Since it is summer and very hot, I decided to go really simple with deli meat sandwiches as the main course and then a bunch of sides.  I catered the sandwich from the local grocery store which saved me a TON of time. Then I just picked little chip bags, some cold salads, fruit assortment, veggie tray, and cupcakes.  I main dessert, however, was an ICE CREAM TRUCK! We have a truck that visits our neighborhood regularly and will show up at a party if you give them a date and location. It was a huge hit with the kids AND parents.

Beverages:

Again, nothing crazy here.  We stocked the fridge and a cooler outside with beer, water, and juice.  This way a cold beverage was readily available no matter where guests chose to hang out.

Entertainment:

This is my favorite part!  Since it was a large party and I knew I wouldn’t be able to set up focused activities to do with the kids.  I kept things super simple, but fun. First, I rented a bounce house from our local rental dealer. Of course, I went with the Frozen one to keep in theme 🙂  

In the toy room, I set up a little pretend ice cream parlor and let the kids make pretend sundaes.  I just used balled up tissue paper for ice cream, cut up straws for sprinkles, and red pom-poms for cherries.  This was another favorite activity.

Finally, I put out the water table, a tub of sensory rice (which looked like sprinkles), and a cardboard ice cream truck that the kids could color and play in.

 

Decorations:

I ordered a few little things from Oriental Trading and picked up everything else from either Party City or the Dollar Tree.  This is something I don’t usually spend much money or time on.

 

Invitations:

I decided to “Go Green” this year and use a digital invitation.  I created them on Greenvelope. It did cost a little to send through this company, but I loved all the choices for customizing the card.

Overall, it was a great party and we had about 60 people attend.  And, over half of them were kids under the age of 5! Everyone said they had a great time, especially the birthday girl!