Letter Factory

We got Leap Frog’s Letter Factory DVD from the library and it was so cute.  I would recommend checking it out.  Pilot comes to me throughout the day saying, “the P says, pa, like popcorn.”  It’s funny.

 

Thursday’s Tip – For Guests!

This is just for fun.  I have a 3-ring binder for guests to look through when they stay with me about my area (state/city).  I typed everything on the computer and after printing that off, I have them in clear protective pages that go in a 3-ring binder.  :)

 

Here are some of the tabs that I have:

 

- Fun Facts: about the state/city.

 

- Useful tips for your stay: just a fun list of things to read.  For example: we recycle, so we have two trash cans.  One is for trash and the other is recycle.  So one of my tips is for them to “think before you toss.” 

 

- Guest book:  These pages I decorated like a scrapbook.  Then I put pictures of the people who have visited us.

 

- Brochures: I got brochures of different areas in the state and of touristy places. 

 

Have any other ideas to add to the binder?  Let me know!  :)

Precious Boys

Big Truck Day!

We went to see Big Trucks.  The boys had so much fun!  I haven’t been before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  But you name it, they had the big truck.  ;)  Four different fire trucks, a trash truck, a concrete mixer, a moving truck, a tow truck, and much much more!  Here are only a few pictures of our day.  :)

 

Driving the Backhoe with little brother driving in back.

 

In the bucket!

 

Hanging out on the Tank!

 

Checking out the Ambulance!

Thursday’s Tip – Get some quiet time

Make a Quiet Time Box for your kids. I want to get some things done during Rider’s nap and I’m normally not able to (not very easily) with Pilot not napping also. So, for an hour I have Pilot do activities I put in a shoe box.

I have a large shoe box and covered it with construction paper (blue, green and red – for fun) and then I covered that with clear contact paper. On the top of the box I wrote “Quiet Time Box” and I placed some stickers on the top as well. (Trucks, concrete mixers and diggers – the cool stuff, right?) :)

Then, on the inside of the lid, I wrote out (on a small piece of paper) what I have in the box (for my own use). I also have a white twin size sheet folded in the box. I cover half of my dining room table with the sheet and he can do his quiet time box in the “cave”. He thinks its fun. Sometimes he prefers to do the box in the living room. Whatever works, as long as I’m able to get some paperwork done. :) He has a fun pillow he can rest against too (just for quiet time).

You can put whatever in that box that they would enjoy. Here is a list of what I have in the box:

- Sticker book: I cut come scrapbook pages in quarters and stapled them together. I added a small sheet of stickers he might want to put on the pages.

- Color pages: I have about 5 coloring pages with some crayons in the box for him. I put the crayons in a tea box. It keeps them on one place (for the most part).

- Books: Just a couple of fun books to look at.

- Puzzle: I have a simple puzzle in there.

- Notepad: There is a small notepad, maybe 3 x 5, with a truck pencil he can draw or color in.

- Cards: I have a small box of alphabet cards with animals on them. He can either match upper case letters with lower case letters, or match the big animal (Bear) with the baby animal, or if he’d rather, he can just look at all of the 26 different animals.

This might be too much for some kids. Mine doesn’t do everything in the box, but at least he has the option.

Jogging…or something like that

We got a double jogging stroller a couple of weeks ago. We try to go out on a trail we found a while back. We’re doing pretty good. Toward the end we just look like we really should have stayed home.

The boys seem to enjoy the ride. When we stop to catch our breath, we hear Pilot saying, “go, go.” I also find a couple of leaves for them to look at during they’re ride. They like to hold them up and watch them fly in the wind.

You know, sometimes people honk at me while I jog. I haven’t figured out if they’re honking to tell me to please stop jogging before I hit the pavement, or because by some wild chance they think that this women, who is red in the face, barely breathing, and slumped over (practically)…looks good?? My personal opinion is option A. :)

We got our bikes “tuned up” also. I have a snazzy new bike helmet to help add to my car honking experience. Biking isn’t bad. I just have to get back in the swing of things again. It’s been about 4 years since I last rode a bike. It’s coming back to me though. ;)

Thursday’s Tip

I’m going to start giving tips on Thursday’s (hence the name). So, here I go…

Magazines. I get a few parent magazines. They have great articles and ideas that I want to keep for future reference, but I don’t want to keep stacks of magazines in my house. If your like me, you rip those pages out that you want to keep. Now what do you do with them? If you haven’t ripped any pages out yet and just have the magazine, start with maybe 5 or 10 magazines at a time and take out the pages you are interested in and put them in a pile next to you.

Once you go through that stack of 5 magazines, go to your pile of pages you took out. Then separate them into different categories. You might have an article on birthday party ideas and something on crafts or even a parenting tip you’d like to hold on to. What ever it is, put it in its own pile.

Then, get a 3-ring binder and some dividers. Label each tab one of the categories from your pile of papers.

You can either punch holes in the side of the articles and then put them in the binder or you can tape them on another piece of paper and punch holes in that paper.

If what you are interested is only a small section of the magazine paper, then feel free to cut that little article out and tape if to a piece of paper. Then you can put that in the binder and add to it with future articles you cut out.

Okay, that is step one. If that works for you, great! But, if one of your tabs takes up the entire binder, then you’ll need to get a separate binder for that tab alone. And do the exact same thing for that one tab. Divide out those pages into separate categories.

For example: One of my tabs is “fun activities”. That tab is becoming too big for my current binder. So, I’m going to separate those. I’ll have a holiday section, crafts, games, and science (to name a few). I’m sure you can get more in-depth, but this works for now. That binder will just be for activities.

If your curious, here are some tabs I have in my binder:

- Hints and Tips

- Health and Safety

- Food Tips

- Fun Activities

- Parenting/pregnancy

- Fun Facts

- Birthday

Depending on how many magazines you have, it could take a while. But don’t give up. Do a little everyday. Maybe try to do it 10 minutes a day.