September 21, 2015 by Krista

Wiggly Worms Tic-Tac-Toe and Go-Paks! Creepy Crawly Pudding Cups

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SnackAndGo#CollectiveBias

While Big J is at school and Baby N is napping, I’ve been trying to capitalize on my time with Little J. The differences between his and Big J’s learning styles have thrown me for a serious loop. Big J is such a quick and easy learner. Little J would rather climb something. He doesn’t care how to count or what letters are in his name. I’ve had to get creative. One thing the boy does love is sweets. This last week we’ve been learning about the letter W and what better way to reinforce the learning with a tasty treat?! We made creepy crawly pudding cups, complete with wiggly worms.

WIGGLY WORMS TIC-TAC-TOE

Before I jump into the delicious pudding cups, I’ve got a couple printable activities we did to help with letter recognition, colors, sequencing and taking turns. You can click on the image to download your own copies.

I had Little J help me circle all the w’s in the sentence and then we used the gummy worms to trace the large letters. We talked about other words that start with w, specifically our last name. And then he ate the gummy worms.

A couple days later, we played a game with the leftover gummy worms. First we matched the colors of the worms for a little color recognition practice. Then we played tic-tac-toe with the worms. He played with one color of worms and I played with another. He didn’t quite get the game, but it was still fun. Big J played when he got home and loved it.

Now, for Little J’s absolute most favorite part… dessert!

GO-PAKS! CREEPY CRAWLY PUDDING CUPS

Print This Recipe

Go-Paks! Creepy Crawly Pudding Cups

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 1 Go-Pak!

Taking the "walking taco" trend into the dessert world. A fun snack for anyone who loves bugs!

Ingredients

OREO Go-Paks!
Chips Ahoy Go-Paks!
Chocolate Snack Pack Pudding
Chocolate Vanilla Snack Pack Pudding
Reddi-wip Original
Sour Gummy Worms

Instructions

Open the Go-Paks! Use a fork and break up the cookies.
You want chunks about the size of a pencil eraser, give or take a little. Use caution while you're breaking up the cookies... you can break the container. Not that this happened... but, yeah it did.
Open the Snack Pack Puddings. I put a Chocolate Vanilla container in with the dark OREO cookies and the Chocolate with the Chips Ahoy to help darken it up.
Mix the cookies and Snack Pack Pudding until they are well combined.
Top with the Reddi-wip and some gummy worms.
If you let the Go-Paks! sit in the fridge for a little while, the cookies will soften up. If you do wait, add the Reddi-wip and gummy worms right before you serve.

These are super fun snacks for any kid who loves bugs and it definitely made teaching Little J more fun and kept him engaged. It was a little more sugar-intensive learning than I usually prefer, but… sometimes you pick your battles, I guess. Little J at least knows what a W looks like now. I hope.

Ready to make your own creepy crawly snack? I grabbed all the ingredients on a recent trip to Walmart and we made our fun buggy snack. Create your own with the directions above. This was so perfect for our study on W and the treats were enticing enough that even Little J – my boy with a .0003 second attention span, love of heights and all things mischief – was engaged through out the activity. Total mom win.

Want more delicious treat ideas? Be sure to check out these very yummy Go-Paks! creations! Which one are you dying to try?

July 27, 2015 by Krista

Road Trip Snacks Kit

We love a good road trip. One of our goals is to squeeze every little bit we can out of summer, including all the road trips we can manage. But traveling with kids can be tricky if you’re not prepared. And great road trip snacks are a major factor of success.

I have put together a road trip snacks kit that is sure to save the day. It’ll keep the whole car happy – and that means momma doesn’t have to spend the whole trip opening juice boxes and chucking bags of chips into the back seat.

ROAD TRIP SNACKS KIT

PUTTING YOUR SNACK KITS TOGETHER

This part is the most crucial part. But that’s ok, it’s important but it’s also pretty easy. You’re just dividing up snacks for each person – yes, like you do every day – but, today it’s for the entire day… at one time. You got this! It’s a little more work, but it will be worth it. Ready?

Materials for your road trips snacks kit:

– small baskets that are easy to see inside – it will be easier to find what you are looking for if you can see it.
– snack friendly foods – I’ll get more in-depth in just a second. It’ll be worth it, promise.
– small containers or ziptop bags – consider serving sizes when selecting these.

Directions to put together a road trip snacks kit:

– Purchase or make your snack-friendly foods and divide your road trip snacks into single serving sizes. Not single serving in terms of nutrition facts, but how much you want to consume (or to be consumed) at a single time.

– Fill your small containers with your single-serving sized road trip snacks. Consider the age of the kit’s owner as to how much you put in each container. For example, I wouldn’t give my husband and my three-year-old the same sized snacks. There would be a mutiny on my hands.

– Store all road trip snacks inside the small baskets. Each person gets their own basket. Place the baskets within easy reach of each person’s seat. If you will have to hand out snacks to the kids, make it so you can reach them.

– Depending on the length of your trip, you can decide if you will refill the road trip snacks baskets at a certain time or not. On our nearly-900 mile trip, I will be refilling the baskets about every 200 miles. This will help my family pace themselves in their snacking and, hopefully, help avoid any carsick episodes from overeating.

ROAD TRIP SNACK IDEAS

DISCLAIMER: These are just ideas. Depending on the age and diets of your travel companions, you may want to adjust this list and consider choking hazards. Choose foods your family enjoys and focus on your specific snacking needs. The kit I created was for me and it doesn’t include all the items listed. I would make adjustments to my kit for both my kids and my husband. Do what is best for each member of your family. That’s why everyone gets their own kit.

– licorice
– candies
– chips
– pretzels
– trail mix
– fruit cups
– granola bars
– applesauce
– dried apple slices
– dried apricots
– dried bananas
– dried mangos
– crackers
– string cheese
– cheese cubes
– raw almonds
– raw pecans
– pistachios
– peanuts
– grapes
– apple slices
– cucumber slices
– grape tomatoes
– baby carrots
– celery sticks
– jicama slices
– mango cubes
– fruit snacks or leather
– Water

ROAD TRIP BINGO!

I also made a little game up for my kids. Because 900 miles is a long way. And they are on a Bingo kick right now. This is super simple to put together and it might help pass a few miles with out the “are we there yet?” version of 20 questions. There are two ways to play. You can mark off the boxes as you see the item in each box along the road. Or you can print an extra Bingo card and make little cards out of them that you draw and then each player can mark off the picture on their game board.

Materials:
– The Road Trip Bingo game boards. There are three versions of the boards. All the boards have the same pictures, but in different spots. Make prints of the same game board to see who is being the most observant and race each other to Bingo! Or print off all three boards and see who can get Bingo first the traditional way.
– Laminator and laminating sheets (or contact paper will work too)
– Scissors

Directions:
– Download the game boards. You’ll have to click each link to download and save it to your computer.
Version 1 Version 2 Version 3
– Print the game boards. If you opt to make a set of cards to draw and play that way, I would suggest printing at least the extra game board on card stock so you can’t see through the paper. I didn’t even think about it and just used regular paper – so my cards are see through. Do as I say, not as I do. It’ll save you some paper and ink. And time when you have to print and laminate them again.

– Laminate the boards.

– Cut the extra board apart on the black lines.

– Lay out the squares on a laminating sheet. Make sure there’s enough space between each card. Laminate the cards and cut them apart.

– I made a little pocket on the back of one of the game boards to hold the cards when they aren’t being played with. I just took some duct tape and taped a ziptop bag onto the back of the board. Totally optional and it doesn’t look real pretty, but it will help us keep from losing the pieces.

That’s it! Super easy. You can use a dry erase marker or pencil to mark off the boxes as you play. If you put the pocket on the back of one of the game boards, you could store the dry erase markers in there too. Or just use pieces of your road trip snacks kit to mark off the boxes. First one to “Bingo!” gets to eat their board markers!

HAPPY ROAD TRIPPING!

AND HAPPY ROAD TRIPS SNACKS!

April 14, 2015 by Krista

7 Free Assessment Resources for Pre-K to 1st Grade

Looking for some free assessment resources? I’ve been hunting all over the internet and I’ve found some great ones! I can’t wait to share them with you because I know they will help you figure out what you need to teach your children. And if I’ve learned anything as a mom it’s that you have to have a plan when it comes to kids!

I have a plan to help me survive summer. I will have three kids – three boys; three mobile, adventurous, curious and energetic boys – under my supervision for eight solid weeks. That’s 1,344 hours. I can hope they will be asleep for half of those, but I won’t hold my breath for that. Like the Boy Scouts say, be prepared.

In trying to put things together for this summer, I realized that I don’t have as comprehensive a grasp on what my kids can do as I once did. I needed to do some assessments so I could plan things that are appropriate for my kids. Spring Break was my window and I took it.

I used resources dealing with k-2nd grade and preschool. There were lots. But these are the best ones I found. And they are free. You gotta love free!

HOMESCHOOL/SUMMER SCHOOL ASSESSMENT RESOURCES

THREE AMAZING ASSESSMENT RESOURCES FOR PRESCHOOL

In no specific order, here are three of my seven favorite resources for the assessments I did on my boys:

This Pre-K workbook that Lindsay at One Beautiful Home put together was a perfect place to start with Little J. He has such a different learning style than Big J and I really wasn’t sure what he could and couldn’t do. This was basic, but still had more complex activities and concepts in it too. It was the perfect place to start without overwhelming me. And it was fun!

Pre-Kinders has some great pages to help with assessments as well. I used these pages to make games that would be fun for Little J but still tell me what I needed to know. For example, I cut the number tiles apart (pictured on the right side of the photo above) and then gathered his cars. We made “parking lots” and then he counted how many cars were in the parking lot and put the number tile next to the lot. It let me know if/how high he could count, as well as working on numbers as a quantity and not just a symbol.

The next four assessments are great to help your child prepare to enter kindergarten. Don’t miss the self-evaluation page! It is super helpful in getting an idea of how your kids think they are doing. It helped soo much!

FOUR ASSESSMENT RESOURCES TO HELP PREPARE YOUR CHILD FOR KINDERGARTEN

This Reading Mama has some fun pages on colors. I didn’t use quite as much of this one as I’d hoped when it became pretty clear that Little J has his colors down pretty well. If your little one is just starting on colors, this would be a really good packet to use. The number and letter pages came in handy and I plan to continue to use them this summer. She has some other Pre-K packs that I plan to use this summer too!

I actually used the assessment pages from The Polka Dot Patch on both boys, separately. The top 5 boxes I used as a tracking page with Little J. With Big J, I used the entire page to practice reading, numbers and days of the week/months of the year. We also talked about seasons and what happens in each one. There’s also a reading assessment available.

If you want to track progress over the summer, I like this set up. It has all assessments for the year in one place. I did assessments over Spring Break, I plan to do a quick one at the beginning of our summer school and then again eight weeks later, at the end. If I decide to do summer school again (of eventually venture into homeschooling full time), I can refer back to how I taught certain things, what worked and what didn’t as well as seeing if I spent an entire summer making any difference in my children’s education. Visual gratification can be helpful in providing future motivation… it can also remind me if it turns out to be a total mess and I get future grand ideas.

This first grade assessment packet from School is a Happy Place is gigantic and absolutely AMAZING! I used this one with Big J and it was so perfect. It was very comprehensive and I feel like I have a great handle on what he can do. The kid likes to do worksheet pages and so it wasn’t terribly hard to get him to work on it. We’re at the end of Kindergarten, so there were some things Big J didn’t know – and that’s EXACTLY what I wanted to know. This would also be an excellent tracking resource and is what I plan to use with Big J this summer.

I have a similar page that we use in our preschool. It’s also a great reminder to Big J and gives him a chance to think about how he’s behaving. Big J does great with self-evaluations and it really helps his behavior when he takes a moment to think about what he is doing. There is also a page with school subjects listed and the kids can do a self-evaluation on their progress in those subjects.

Do you do any schooling at home? If you have a favorite resource, let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for more ideas!

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!

December 29, 2014 by Krista

Countdown Goals Printable

Welcome my friend! I’m so thrilled you stopped by. Do you set goals at the beginning of a new year? Do you stick with them? That’s the hardest part, for me. But, having them smack in the way where I can see them helps. And that’s how this Countdown Goals Printable was created.

Back in 2014, I had a goals printable that people went ga-ga over (you can check that out here) and it ended up being A LOT more popular than I expected. I wanted to create another, similar, design with a little more focus. And that’s where this goals printable came into play.

I love this goals printable because it’s short and sweet. It will make you really think about and focus on what you REALLY WANT this year. And it’s perfect for kids too, so you can set goals together.

So, what is that ONE new thing you are going to try this year? Let it push you out of your comfort zone a little bit! You got this!

Want an insider tip? Use the other goal areas to help you reach that one new thing. Learn about this new thing, read books on it, research and you’ll be so ready to take on that goal it’ll be a piece of cake.

I know I always do better when I feel prepared and have an idea of what to expect or how to accomplish something. The best goals are rarely ever ones we just fall into and everything happens to luck out.

That’s not how life works!

So, get out there and make it happen. Plan it out! Prepare! AND CONQUER!

You can download your free copy and set some goals. Get the kids involved and set some as a family, if you want to go crazy. Good luck!