A mushroom DIY Tutorial by Amy Liu Bissett on crafting adorable Toadstool Chair Cushions for a dreamy woodland fairy party!

Use tension and popsicle sticks to make stick bombs! They explode when you throw them - three different designs make this the perfect rainy day activity.

Help the kids learn about circuits and positive and negative charges in a fun way this summer. This popsicle stick LED flashlight is easy to make and is a perfect summer STEM activity for kids. Read here how to make it and ideas for games to play with flashlights.

Behavior contracts help keep kids on track and arguments about behavior to a mimimum. Use these sample behavior contracts to make one that works for your family.

This is a reminder that the general fiction cereal box project is due Tuesday, November 30th. The following samples of work have been on display in the classroom as helpful examples of what a high…

This easy winter lantern craft for kids is the perfect way to bring some light into the darker months and would be a great way to practice scissor skills or celebrate the winter solstice.

Here's a simple craft to get your kids playing outside--parachute guys, made from fuzzy sticks and a coffee filter.

Ha!

Looking for inspiration? Here are our favorite science project ideas

Prince Harry's ex looks sophisticated in a blush gown as she left the Natural History Museum bash with her new man.

If you cannot afford a curriculum or if the curriculum you bought no longer works for your family then you need to utilize the resources in this post! I have scoured the internet in order to find a variety of Handwriting resources to fit a variety of students needs. I have included preschool as well as a variety of font choices for Elementary students.

LEGO bricks can play a HUGE part in your homeschool curriculum, especially your language arts curriculum. We came up with so many creative and fun ways to begin teaching language arts with LEGO tha…

Kids don't need much convincing when it comes to playing with fizzy concoctions! Here's how to get started on your melting snowman winter activity.

My son just wrapped up a four-week math summer camp and loved it (he clearly has his father’s genes). One of the things his teacher mentioned that he should continue to work on was counting money. Imagine my glee when that very same day Miss Kindergarten shared an amazing activity and printable on counting coins on her blog. (Yes, I do believe in fate.) Her Coin Caterpillars idea was EXACTLY what we needed! Rather than just hand my son some pocket change and her worksheet, I decided to make some caterpillar faces so we could create caterpillar problems to do now and later. To make the caterpillar faces: I traced a quarter onto construction paper and an empty cardboard cracker box I pulled out of our recycle bin and cut them out. I cut and bent a pipe cleaner in the shape of a “V” and hot glued it to the cardboard circle. I added glue on top and put the construction paper circle over it, sandwiching the pipe cleaner in the middle. Then I laid a pencil over the pipe cleaner and wrapped both ends around the pencil to make the squiggly antennae. All that was left to do was glue on some googly eyes and draw a smile. To make his coin caterpillars, I asked him to pick several coins and line them up in a row with a caterpillar face at the beginning. Underneath he wrote the values of the coins and then used a 1-100 numbers grid to count forward (i.e. add the values together). So cute. So fun. And such good practice. Thank you, Miss Kindergarten! Find this idea and loads of other great math activities listed on love2learn2day's Math Monday blog hop here.

School projects showing the solar system don't have to be flat, colored posters or mobiles hanging in a straight row from a clothes hanger. Follow the directions, and you will create a solar system that resembles the orbit where you live.

At last, its that time of the year we all have been looking forward to since spring. Schools are reopening, whether in-class or remote learning, it is time for our kids to go back to school. If you have visited my earlier blogs, you’d know that I have discussed getting to know your child form/ questionnaire. This year al lot of the exchange with teachers is probably going to be online, through e-mails and smart use of google drive. This form becomes even more important as you can print it out an

My 4 step process for teaching kids how to read. Teaching your kids how to read is a rewarding process, it just takes time and patience.

The 100th Day of School is truly one of my favorite days of the year. There is SO much fun learning to do that revolves around the BIG number 100, and it’s only right to celebrate in a BIG way! Check out how I celebrate the 100th Day of School from beginning to end by reading more below, and grab th

Learn how to play Tug of War Dice game. It makes a great two player game for family game night and a great group game.

Darling Kids Crafts for Fall that will totally get your kids excited for the Autumn season!

Kids will have a blast creating their own comic strips! Print 6 different comic strip templates, along with story starter ideas.

4 super fun and simple games and activities for kids of any age you can DIY at home using ball pit balls and other supplies you already have!

A Lego challenge is simply a way to help kids think creatively and imaginatively when playing with their Legos. After building an initial play set with instructions, kids can feel clueless when staring at a pile of legos and then needing to think of something to create on their

Glue star suncatchers with beads and glitter - a simple, fun craft for toddlers, preschoolers and up.

For Christmas, Allison is getting a quiet book. I made a couple a few years ago for neices and nephews and figured it was about time for Allison to have one. She's SO busy and hopefully this will allow Brian and I to actually pay attention to part of our Sunday meetings. Little did I know when I started that Allison would be receiving not a just a quiet book, and The HUGE Encyclopedia Britannica of quiet books. The thing is 3 inches thick! I think I got a little carried away. There were just so many good ideas that I wanted to include. At least this way I can split the book in two in another year or so and add a page or two (since I didn't use up all of my ideas) and I'll have two quiet books to keep two kids quiet at the same time. Bright side, right? =) Here are the photos! Front Cover. Notice how its curved? That would be becuase its so HUGE! Alphabet page. We have all the letter in the pocket on the front cover. They velcro on & off. Getting dressed page & closet. It's got a zipper to play with and the doll clothes velcro on & off. Lacing and tying shoes & counting/number recognition gumball machine. The gumballs velcro on & off. The house is "Lift the flaps". Weaving page... some of these pages she'll grow into. The balloons are color matching. They velcro on and off. I made a buckles page becuase Allison LOVES to play with buckles on her puppy leash, her car seat, the grocery cart... Winter and spring themed pages. Build a snowman (velcro part) and button on the flowers. Summer and fall themed pages. The apples snap on and off and the leaves velcro on and off. Shape matching and hanging clothes on a clothesline. Counting with beads and a peek-a-book page. When she's older she can braid the yarn hair too. "Whats in mommy's purse" and a notepad for drawing. Some keys, dead credit cards and play make-up will probably go in the purse. If you want to try your hand at making your own (its a great project, but its not really any cheaper than buying one, except when you make your own you get a lot more pages for your $30), here are some resources that I found and used to make Allison's. Anna Fowler's Quiet Book blog ... lots of good ideas and a work in progress. You might check her family blog for her post that shows all her quiet book pages on it. LDS Quiet Book Packets ... for purchase, but can give you some good ideas. Mommy Chic: Quiet Books How to make an LDS Quiet Book ... this one now has patterns for quiet book pages. The author of the book by the same name as the website gave permission for them to be publish on the website. If you want to know more about how I made mine or what I used comment here or email me. =) PS - this was my 100th post, and I just passed my 1 year blog-o-versary! Stay tuned for some blog candy... (aka: a give-away) =)

We treated the boys to Sesame Street Live over the weekend. It was such a fun show and both boys really enjoyed it. Big brother sat in awe with his mouth half open for the first part and then danced and ran around after intermission. Little brother sat and clapped the entire show! The theme

Here are 20 humorous and lighthearted memes that have swept across teaching social media sites that accurately depict or describe the realities of teaching.

This jingle bell kids activity is such a fun way to help children build fine motor skills using Christmas jingle bells!

Remember the Whymsical Wynter MoOn? This be the Sister Sun. I used Tissue PaPer and Mod podge decoupage, along with Butterfly cut outs from My PaPer punch and layered and layered and layered. PaPer Mache Sun White Acrylic paint Tissue PaPer ~ assorted CoLoRs Butterfly PaPer punch Decorative PaPer ~ assorted designs Mod Podge Decoupage I started out by giving the Sun a good layer or two of White paint. Let dry completely. Then in a process over a few days, I decoupaged the Tissue PaPer pieces to the Sun. I'm pretty heavy handed with the decoupage too! If you're familiar with Tissue PaPer, you know that it bleeds pretty easily. It would behoove you to do a moderate layer and then let dry for several hours or even overnight would be better. I didn't really try to follow any kind of system. Most of the time I just closed my eyes, picked a piece and placed it on the Sun. Sometimes I just closed My EyEs and dropped the tissue paper and let it fall in place. You know, what ever works for you! When I felt satisfied with the Tissure PaPer, I put a last layer of Mod podge all over. Using the Butterfly hole punch, Cloud design paper, Black&White design paper, I punched a few Butterflies, then decoupaged them to the Sun. One more layer of Mod podge to seal it. Hung on front dOOr to encourage Spring to hurry up and shake a tail, We need some warm weather!

A good definition of manners is to honor others above yourself. Role model manners, teach manners and your child will find favor with others.

I have been wanting to do marble painting for a long time, but for some reason I have never gotten around to doing it with the children until last week. I was inspired by the way Jean Van't Hul documented the project in her book, The Artful Parent, and wanted to have my 2 1/2-3 year olds give it a try. What I liked about The Artful Parents project was the use of muffin tins to roll the marbles around in. Brilliant! Such an easy way to control the mess and I have these wonderful trays that kept the marbles contained, so we were golden and the children loved it. They first rolled the marbles around in the paint with a spoon. Dropped them on their paper... Then slowly moved the tray around and started the marble painting process. It is a great hand-eye coordination project because they have to be sure not to move the tray too fast or the marbles would "jump" out of the tray. I really like the way the paintings turned out. I also had my 3 and 4 year olds make their own, and both age groups loved it. Another aspect of this project that some of the children enjoyed was to just use their hands to paint with the marble, which created a nice scribbling technique with the paint.

This photo shoot captured just another fun day in the park, hanging out and enjoying each other's company. The family and a TeePee was a great collaboration.

Free first day of school printable signs for that perfect back-to-school photo. Also includes matching last day of school sign printables!