February 25, 2015 by Krista

Springtime Activities Boredom Buster Jar Printable

What’s your weather been like lately? Is it finally warming up or are you still covered in snow? We’ve had pretty mild weather recently and have been doing some fun springtime activities. Now, we have a storm forecast for this weekend, yuck. Ah, but that’s what the winter boredom buster jar was for, right? If you’re expecting sunshine instead, I’ve got a spring boredom buster jar for you! It’s full of fun springtime activities that – shhh, don’t tell the kids – will help them learn a little too!

SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES BOREDOM BUSTER JAR

There are 10 springtime activities in this printable set. I tried to make the activities ones that older kiddos could enjoy too. They are also a little more educational-based than the last boredom buster jar. Don’t worry though, it’s all pretty basic stuff and it’s still fun. Promise.

MAKING YOUR OWN SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES BOREDOM BUSTER JAR

Links below may be affiliate links. This means I will receive a small percentage of any purchase made though the link. Your cost is not changed in any way and your support helps me keep this site running. Thank you!

Materials:
– Plastic bottle
– Dirt/soil (here’s a whole terrarium kit on amazon if you don’t want to piece it together)
– Pebbles
– Seeds
– White flowers
– Food coloring
– Dishwashing Soap
– Glycerin (get glycerin on amazon)
– Unflavored gelatin (get unflavored gelatin on amazon)
– Silicone molds (find lots of fun silicone molds on amazon)
– Jars
– Skittles
– Empty egg carton

You can gather these items and have them ready when you are so you can get in and do the project right away, or you can make gathering the items part of your activity. There’s a few more items required, but they are common and you probably have them on hand right now.

Make sure you click over and download the file at the link below so you get both pages. Don’t just right click and save as on this one. You’ll be missing part of it! Have fun!

GET YOUR SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES
PRINTABLE BOREDOM BUSTER JAR!

October 22, 2014 by Krista

Five Ways to Use WaterWipes

This post is sponsored by WaterWipes and Mommy Bag Marketing. Although I received product and financial compensation, all opinions are entirely my own.

With three kids running around (or rolling, in Baby N’s case) we have a lot of messes. And I mean A LOT. If you can imagine the mess, I’ve probably cleaned it. A brand new bottle of bubbles? A whole tube of tooth paste? Baby powder and petroleum jelly goop? Yep, yep and a “you’ve got to be kidding me” yep. And all that was just before noon last Monday. Some days are messier than others…

All these messes means there’s a lot of cleaning going on at my house. Ironically, you usually can’t tell that just by looking. Sometimes, I need the broom and mop and vacuum and washing machine to clean up my boys’ messes… but, more often, I just need a towel. Regardless of the mess, I don’t want a lot of chemicals. I still have kids that think it’s okay to put Legos and Connect Four pieces in their mouths or to lick every surface in sight. I don’t want them licking unpronounceable chemicals and wondering if it warrants a call to Poison Control.

5 WAYS TO USE

WATERWIPES

WaterWipes is the world’s purest baby wipe with 99.9% water and that other 0.01% is grapefruit extract! And that’s it, that’s all these wipes contain. I bet you can pronounce both of those, right? No harsh chemicals. Perfect for that delicate baby skin. Did you know that baby skin is five to seven times thinner than an adult’s skin? Definitely not where you want to be applying chemicals 10 times a day! Right?!

WaterWipes are 99.9% water and 0.1% fruit extract. Perfect for the most sensitive skin.

WATERWIPES AS BABY WIPES

Baby Wipes. The most obvious way to use these is exactly what they were made for: baby bums. Water Wipes are great baby wipes. My only complaint is that I wish they were a little thicker. I like a nice thick barrier between me and whatever tushie ick I’m cleaning up at the moment. Despite that, I really like these wipes. I love that these won’t dry out my little one’s skin and can prevent diaper rash. These natural baby wipes are so gentle, but they still get the dirtiest of jobs done.

WaterWipes are gentle on baby's sensitive skin

WATERWIPES FOR SPOT TREATMENT

Spot Treatments. Have you ever fed children? They are notorious for being messy. On the rare occasion that we go out to eat with our kids, you can bank on some sauce, jelly, or other condiment coming home on their clothes. WaterWipes are great for quick little spot treatments and since it’s just water, the spots don’t dry with rings around them or discolored. For spills that require a wardrobe change, I put the wet WaterWipe on the spot, fold up the clothes and seal it in the wet bag we keep in our diaper bag until I can get it home to treat it with the laundry. The wipe keeps the spot wet so it doesn’t set before I can get it taken care of.

WATERWIPES FOR CRAFT CLEAN UP

Craft Clean Up. My boys like to paint and, inevitably, they drip on the table, counter top or each other. I love using WaterWipes to clean up their spills on solid surfaces because I don’t have to worry about any lingering chemicals hanging out and getting on food. After scrubbing my kiddo’s hands, my baby can pop his fingers right back in his mouth with no icky tastes lingering on them. I can use them on my two year old’s face without worrying about getting anything in his eyes.

WATERWIPES FOR ON-THE-GO- WET WIPES

Whether you want to wipe down the shopping cart, clean peanut butter off your toddler’s face after lunch at the park or wipe down a toy that’s been hanging around the backseat for who-knows-how-long, these wipes are fantastic. They come in a plastic, resealable bag that keeps them moist and if they dry out, just add a bit of (distilled) water to wet them again. And the single wipes are perfect to keep in your purse or the diaper bag (although if you keep just a single wipe in the diaper bag your life is far less messy than mine).

WATERWIPES AS GENTLE MAKEUP REMOVER CLOTHS

If your skin dries out really easily or is prone to break outs, WaterWipes are great to use as make up remover cloths. A lot of the reasons these are such great baby wipes are the same reasons they are great facial wipes. They are gentle on your skin and aren’t soaked with chemicals. If you suffer from psoriasis, dermatitis or other skin conditions you can still use WaterWipes without the adverse effects of harsher make up remover wipes. The single sample size packages are great to throw in your make up bag or an overnight bag. The wipes are already wet and sealed in their own package. It’s compact ready to use and there are no worries about spilled bottles!

WATERWIPES AS COOL CLOTHS

About a week and a half ago, my littlest boy had a mild fever. Nothing that was too severe, but he obviously wasn’t feeling well. Somehow every single washcloth in our house was in the laundry (the somehow being that’s what Big J used to clean up the nearly full gallon on milk he’d dropped on the floor earlier that evening). We put a couple WaterWipes in the fridge for a few minutes and used them to cool his forehead and sore legs. They worked fabulously. He stopped fussing and finally fell asleep.

These are a great addition to your arsenal, whether you’re battling the office, motherhood, spoiling grandkids or something else. WaterWipes are eco-friendly, truly chemical-free, and perfect for so many of life’s everyday little messes.

You can find more info about WaterWipes and stay connected by following WaterWipes on Facebook and Twitter.

August 13, 2014 by Krista

Five Sight Word Apps to Help Your Kids Learn to Read

Hey, my friend! Are you trying to help your kiddo learn to read? Me too!

It can be HARD, right?! Even my five-year-old has told me, “Mom, I don’t like English. It’s hard!” And he’s RIGHT! It IS hard. English is incredibly hard! And sight words can be the hardest of all. It’s easy to get discouraged when we get something wrong over and over.

Sight words aren’t long words, or difficult to say or even hard to recognize. But, a lot of sight words are cheater words.

Most of them don’t follow the rules. They are hard to sound out for a beginning reader. The silent -e. The hard -c sound. Words that look like they should rhyme, but don’t. Or words that shouldn’t rhyme, but they do!

Have you had this struggle with your child too? As parents, it’s hard to watch our kids struggle, right? My kindergartner would refuse to practice or even try. Tears, tantrums, the whole nine yards. Until we found something that works for him.

He has always liked his “tablet time”. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that would hyperventilate with horror at the amount of screen time this kid has under his belt. But, that’s fine.

When he was two-and-a-half years old, he could correctly identify a pentagon, a hexagon, a trapezoid and an octagon in everyday items. My inner mommy would cackle hysterically when people gave me compliments on teaching him such complex shapes at such a young age. If only these people knew he was learning all this from an app on my tablet and I didn’t do much more than encourage him. Half the time, I was just as surprised as they were that he knew them!

This boy learns well with his allotted tablet time and I’m not going to refuse to use the resource when it works so well for him. And I’m so glad there are people out there that develop quality apps that we can use! They are definitely one of my mommy heroes.

In our house, practicing sight words is not a fight anymore!

Does that sound nice? Want to see if practicing sight words during screen time can help your kids actually enjoy the task? Great! But which apps should you try? No worries, Momma! I’ve done all the work for you.

I tried at least a dozen different sight word apps before I let Big J loose. I narrowed it to six and let him play with them. He chose his favorites and now he gets 20 minutes a day of sight word practice.

Best of all, he LIKES it and he’s learning! I don’t get frustrated because he won’t try, he doesn’t get frustrated because it’s hard. He can see that he’s making progress and he likes to read the early readers with me now. And he can pick out some of the sight words, which was the goal all along, right?

Our Favorite Sight Word Apps

Sight Words Learning Games. This is my favorite app. The lite version of this app has two games for your kiddo to play. Both are great. Big J’s favorite is the gear game. This app features the 220 Dolch sight words (plus 90+ nouns) in five skill levels. It also has uppercase, lowercase and combined forms of the words. In the full version, there are six games, including a set of flashcards. The lite version is available for free and the full version is currently $1.99 in the Play Store. Also in the App Store and in the Amazon App Store. I will be back to this company.

- Phonics Spelling and Sight Words. This app is good for after your kiddo has been working with sight words. I wouldn’t use it as an introduction for sight words because it’s geared a little more toward drills and practicing, rather than playing. But now that Big J understands and knows some of the words, it’s good practice. It also works on letter blending. This app has 300 words divided into two levels, Pre-K and K.
  Available for free in the Play Store and the Amazon App Store.
  
  (Some of the reviewers were complaining about the ad content in the app. I personally haven’t had any questionable ads pop up while we’re playing (I usually have to help Big J with this one a little so I usually see everything that pops up on the screen), but you might want to keep an eye on it.)

- Words for Kids – Reading Game. It’s also called Bud’s First Words. This game encourages kids to learn new vocabulary words, as well as begin to recognize sentence structure and recognize sight words. There are over 350 vocabulary words and is a great app for English as a Second Language Learners. This app is targeted more toward younger readers (great for preschoolers, kids with learning disabilities or new language learners) and doesn’t have an intense focus on the actual sight words, but I like that it shows Big J that sight words show up in everyday life. There are in-app purchases in the lite version or your can get the full version ($2). Both versions are available in the Play Store (lite|full) as well as the Amazon App Store (lite|full). It’s also available in the App Store There are Japanese, Korean, and Spanish versions as well in the Play Store. I’m going to have both my boys try the Spanish version.

- Kids Reading Sight Words. This is another app by Intellijoy. I really, really like their apps. They are engaging and entertaining for my kids, but still have a great educational aspect. These are the apps my kids will play and not even realize they are learning. Their sight words app uses the 220 Dolch sight words in five skill levels to identify sight words and common words at their reading level as well as develop reading fluency. Available in the Play Store (lite|full), in the Amazon App Store (lite|full). You can find the app in the App Store as well, though I don’t know if there is a lite version. I couldn’t find it. I love all of Intellijoy’s apps and this one is worth every penny. Promise. (I have purchased the lifetime All-in-One pack that Intellijoy offers on Android. I don’t know if this is an option for Apple devices – I couldn’t find anything in my brief search. But, I love having access to all their high-quality games. And customer service was super helpful when I changed phones and I couldn’t access my all-in-one pack.)

Princesses Learn Sight Words. Not just for girls, my friends. Although, I’m sure any princess-loving little lady out there would adore this app too. I wasn’t sure if it would be a hit or not with Big J, but he loved the music and the games. While there are definite improvements that could be made to this app to increase the sight word learning process, it’s not a bad way for a kid to spend ten or fifteen minutes. This app allows kids to recognize sight words in a story-based context, which helps them recognize them in other text they see. The games aren’t super educational (memory, coloring, stickers, bingo and songs) but it is fun and the kids are still being exposed to educational content. In-app purchases are available. Get the app in the Play Store, Amazon App Store, and the App Store for free. There are also versions of Princesses Learn Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and more. Check out all the Early Languages Apps in the Play Store.

What are your favorite sight word apps or other educational apps?

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.

July 14, 2014 by Krista

Washi Tape Summer Boredom Buster Jars

Well, hello friend! I’m so glad you came to visit today! Looking for a boredom buster activity to help you out with the kids? Thousands of people on Pinterest have loved this Washi Tape Boredom Buster Jar and I know you will too.

Here’s a question for you…Can you feel it? Feel what? The warmer weather, the longer days. The school bell’s last ring of the year.

It won’t be long now before school is out and the kids are home!

Every. Single. Day.

Does that make you a little nervous? Because it makes me nervous.

Day after day after day of refereeing the Brother Bickering Match isn’t my idea of a good time. Back when I didn’t spend my days chasing three little hooligans and trying to keep them entertained all day, I lived for summer. Now, I’m a little apprehensive when summer hits full force.

We live in the desert, which means that it’s too hot to play outside from about 11 am until around 5 pm. That’s a lot of hours inside. Climbing and bouncing off the walls. Pulling out every toy we own, all at once. Hiding in the closet eating chocolate.

That last one might be me.

I have a hard time coming up with ideas of things for us to do on the spot and my boys get tired of the same thing all the time. So, I put together a list and then made us our very own Boredom Buster Jar. Actually, two jars… they wouldn’t all fit in one! There’s no excuse now. Let the fun begin!

WASHI TAPE BOREDOM BUSTER JARS

Materials:
– Craft sticks
– Permanent Marker
– Washi Tape in seven designs
– Jars or containers to hold your sticks

Directions:
– Gather ideas of activities your kids would like to do. Include things like projects you can make together, things they can do on their own, activities that will help get the wiggles out, and even places to go. I had a running list on my phone that I kept adding to for about two or three weeks. When I came upon something else I thought my kids would enjoy, I’d add it to the list.

Want a great list in just a few seconds? Check out my list with 168+ activities and ideas of things to put on your craft sticks!

– Write each activity on a craft stick with a permanent marker. Doesn’t need to be fancy, just legible. You could type them up on the computer, print them out and then glue them on the sticks – but that’s too time intensive for me.

DIVIDING THE ACTIVITIES INTO CATEGORIES

I divided the categories up so that my kids would be able to use the boredom jar on their own.

By putting the activities into categories, I was able to control the kind of activity and still allow my kids to choose what they wanted to do, randomly or by picking sticks until they found something they liked.

I thought about our typical day and the kinds of activities we like to do. Then I considered how involved I am in different parts of my children’s days. I came up with seven categories.

My categories were:

Things we can do
Things we can make
Energy Bug – activities that help focus their bouncing off the walls into something a little less destructive
Quiet time activities – things for my preschooler to do on his own while his brothers nap
Family activities – things we wanted to do as a family, like outings. This was perfect for weekends!
Outside play time – activities to do outside. A lot of these involved water
Fun with food – activities to do with food, often ending with snack time

– Tape each stick in a single category with the same color washi tape. You could also paint the ends or use some other method of distinguishing the sticks. Washi tape was quick, easy, and mess-free. If you have a problem with the tape sticking, a small piece of scotch tape or a swipe with a glue stick should fix the problem.

– Store your sticks in a jar (or jars…) and the next time boredom strikes, prepare to be a superhero!

Did you download my list of 168+ activity ideas to put on your craft sticks?

GET IT NOW!

I did the hard part for you, the rest is cake. And you’ll be so glad when you need a distraction and you can just grab the boredom jar and quell the storm.

Maybe the jar is too much? Just print the list!

PROMISE, it’ll be a lifesaver.

April 9, 2014 by Krista

Preschool Letter O is for Olympics Art Activity

Here’s a fun activity to do with the kiddos. The Olympics may be over, but they will come around again (isn’t it great?!) and how fun would it be to do your own Olympics as part of this too?! So, here’s Sinea from Ducks ‘n a Row with this super fun Letter O is for Olympics art activity. Take it away, Sinea!

____________________________

Guest post by Sinea Pies

Many thanks to Krista for inviting me to guest post on her blog. Whenever I have an opportunity to guest on someone else’s site, I want it to be special. This opportunity came at the perfect time! I’m sharing the most recent craft that I did with my preschool class. I loved it. The children loved it. Their parents loved it and I think you will love it, too.

Preschool Letter O is for Olympics Collage

My eleven preschoolers are such a sweet group. As you know, no two 4 year olds are alike. Each time we do a new project, I anticipate what I will see.

Aliyah is a perfectionist. She takes her time to get every detail right. Due to her deliberacy, we often have to wait for her to finish up.
Caleb goes for accuracy. He wants his project to look just like mine or like the real thing, such as when we did our lion craft. He didn’t want the mane to be orange and yellow. A lion’s mane is brownish-tan and that is exactly how his looked. (Beautifully done, I might add.)
Evan takes everything on with gusto. He had glue all over the page before he noticed that it should only go on the ringed outline of the “O”. No worries. Glue dries and he had fun.

It was letter “O” week. Though logic said “Owl” was the way to go, Katie, my assistant, said “No, we HAVE to do the Olympics!” And I am so glad we did.

Our craft was something I found pictured on Pinterest. Isn’t Pinterest great? It is like visiting the World Library of Ideas. We glued Fruit Loops™ onto a page to form a letter “O” as well as completing the Olympic rings.

Preschool Letter O is for Olympics template

This is the template I used.

How’d it go? After 14 weeks with my students, I have come to know them pretty well. If I gave them ALL the cereal at once, those rings would never have been made. Katie agreed. Rings first, big “O” later.

Preschool Letter O is for Olympics Fruit Loops

So, I came in prepared with snack-size zip bags, one of each color. I called upon my “Teachers Helpers” to go around and leave one piece with each of their fellow students.

Everyone carefully glued them into the Olympic rings. Not all of the rings were the right color but, no biggie, this is preschool! When I heard the familiar “Teacher, I need more Fruit Loops” it was time to give them the rest of their cereal. It worked very, very well.

Preschool Letter O is for Olympics Craft

Busy little hands making their “O’s”

The finished product! Pretty, huh?

Supplies for your Letter O Art Project

Fruit Loops™ cereal
“O” template printed on card stock
Elmer’s® glue
little cup for the glue
cotton swabs

Directions for your Letter O Art Project

Squirt some glue into a small cup.

Using a cotton swab, dab the rings of the Olympic symbol with glue and attach a piece of cereal in each.

Now, rub glue onto the big “O” and attach cereal all around.

Some children will go “multi color” and others may want to separate it into groups of color.

Enjoy!

Sinea Pies is the inspiration behind Ducks ‘n a Row. Admittedly not nearly as organized as she’d like to be, Sinea encourages her readers to join her as they head toward the goal of “The Beauty of an Organized Life” together.

Ducks ‘n a Row also visits the world of cooking/baking, time management, home/office decor, health, fashion, education, faith, Fido (dogs) and, most recently, preschool. Having years of experience as a high school guidance counselor and school administrator, she is now having fun teaching preschool and sharing with her readers!
Follow Sinea (pronounced SEENA) on social media: Facebook/ Google+ / Pinterest / Twitter / Sverve and please stop by for Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop on Ducks ‘n a Row, as well.

____________________________

Thanks so much for sharing this great preschool activity, Sinea! I would have a hard time with this project… Fruit Loops are my favorite cereal and I could eat a whole box of them by myself. But for the sake of learning, maybe, just maybe, I might be able to part with a few handfuls while Big J and Little J glue them to their papers… who are we kidding? They’d eat them too. But I can’t blame them… I’d be sittin on the couch shoveling the sugar-frosted cereal into my mouth too. Visit Sinea for more excellent ideas over at Ducks ‘n a Row!

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.

SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES BOREDOM BUSTER JAR

MAKING YOUR OWN SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES BOREDOM BUSTER JAR

GET YOUR SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES PRINTABLE BOREDOM BUSTER JAR!

WATERWIPES AS BABY WIPES

WATERWIPES FOR SPOT TREATMENT

WATERWIPES FOR CRAFT CLEAN UP

WATERWIPES FOR ON-THE-GO- WET WIPES

WATERWIPES AS GENTLE MAKEUP REMOVER CLOTHS

WATERWIPES AS COOL CLOTHS

What are your favorite sight word apps or other educational apps?

DIVIDING THE ACTIVITIES INTO CATEGORIES

Supplies for your Letter O Art Project

Directions for your Letter O Art Project

Privacy Policy

GET YOUR SPRINGTIME ACTIVITIES
PRINTABLE BOREDOM BUSTER JAR!