Tis the season for Yard Sales

If you don't mind a little bit of clean up afterward, set up a pretend yard sale in your house!

Have kids go through their dressers and toy boxes and pick out a few items for a pretend yard sale. To give them practice with writing numbers, have them create a price tag for each item (Let them come up with their own prices)
Hang up some yard sale signs...equip them with a calculator...and they'll be all set to go.





Here is what I chose to buy from our yard sale.


And this is the price that I was given.


A possible miscalculation, I wondered...??
I decided since it was going to a good cause, I'd go ahead and pay it without making a fuss.


But I must say, at these prices, I don't know that I'll be out yard sale-ing again anytime soon.

What's in a picture?

Today we all painted our own pictures..
Then we took turns choosing one, and telling a story about the picture..
One person would start it, then pass the picture on for the next person to add to the story...and then on to the next, until everyone had a turn to add something.


First, we have the story of an angel who lived in this lovely green house. She would walk down the driveway to the candy land across the street. She would visit it every day. After a while a new family moved in to the house and the angel would watch over them...and then she would get the mail (see mailbox next to house)


Then we have the story of a little girl and a magical carrot which, when bitten, would turn the forest into a magical candy forest (we do love our candy). In this forest, there was an ice cream tree, candy bar tree, hershey's kiss tree, licorice tree, gum drop, and gummy worm tree... and she could eat as much as she wanted and it wouldn't make her sick or give her cavities. After a while the magic would go away. Nobody at school believed the girl's stories about the magical forest...until everyone got a little bite of the carrot themselves.


This picture told a story of a queen's magic mirrors that answered questions about the future. She used these mirrors to shrink all of the princesses that would've been queens one day.....and they all worked together (with the help of the magic potion) to 'get' the queen and put her into jail.


And finally the story of the magic beans...and the snake who was looking all over for the fallen star. He looked under a rock and was given the power to see everyone in the world. He saw the good people and the bad people. Then he was given a magic wand to do good things for the good people and make all of the bad people become slaves with no homes.

:)

The End.

Let me know what your kids come up with :)

BYOC (Bring your own costume)

Change things up tonight and have a COSTUME DINNER. No special food preparation required, just have everyone in your family dress up in their best costumes for a fun evening at the dinner table.

We did this a few days ago and it was hilarious to see what everyone came up with.
(Ever seen a skeleton with a mustache?)

When the bellies are full, play a game of 'costume hide and seek.'
For some reason adding costumes makes an ordinary game seem so much more exciting.

Mom, Tell Me One More Story....

Today take your kids on a trip down memory lane. Pull out old scrapbooks, home videos, and journals that you kept for them in their younger years. Tell them stories about the funny things they did, the trips your family went on, etc.

When my girls were born I bought these books to help keep track of their growing years.


I'm so glad I did. They have a lot of specific questions that really guided me in my record keeping...things that I never would have thought to write down otherwise.

My girls had a ball listening to stories about their baby days and all the trouble they used to get into.
The little stinkers.

Who needs cable?

There's no reason to watch tv when you can be on tv.
Cut a square hole from one side of a box and decorate the box like a tv.
Put a few items into a bag and have your child close their eyes and choose an item to do an impromptu commercial with.

Here's what these crazy girls came up with:





I think they might have a future in this :)

Beat the boredom

Settle the kiddos into a warm bubble bath and let them relax while you entertain them with a few new stories. My girls thought it was pretty cool that they got to have story time in their birthday suits ;)


In fact, they didn't want to get out.


Check out a drawing book from the library and let them sharpen their drawing skills




Dress them up as pirates



or as Kings with their own set of rules!



Set up an ice cream shop in your house. Invite some neighbors over to order a cone with their choice of mix-ins! (Our favorite)

Mad Libs

Create a few Mad-Lib stories for your kids and let them tell you what to write in the blanks.




You may want to use these to teach older preschoolers what nouns, verbs and adjectives are (I do realize they're only preschoolers, but they really catch on to these things quick!)
For younger kids, "thing" "place" "name" "color" "food" and "feeling" are good words to use for the blanks.

We had a few good laughs after reading these aloud.
Check out these Mad Libs if you need some ideas.

My Daddy is a Pretzel...

Allow me to introduce our favorite book of the day:


I give it
+5 Points for colorful illustrations
+5 Points for a story that is short and sweet
+5 Points for its promotion of physical activity
+5 Points for broadening our horizons and making us feel at one with the earth....
and,
unfortunately,
-2 points for causing this out of shape Mom to pull a few muscles.

Menus never looked so yummy...

Anyone else have picky eaters in the house?
Try involving them in the menu planning:

Cut out several pictures of food from old magazines or empty cereal boxes. Be sure to include a variety of foods from each of the 5 food groups.

Glue or tape the magazine cutouts to an old cereal box and cut around the picture. Stick a magnet to the back of the picture and LOOKEE, you have a menu item :)

Cut out strips of paper that you labeled: BREAKFAST, LUNCH, SNACK, and DINNER
Glue them to a piece of cardboard and cut around them. Place magnets on the back of each. Put the magnets into a box!

Allow your children to look through the food magnets in the box and put together 3 well balanced meals for the day. Emphasize the importance of adding fruits and/or vegetables to every meal!

They'll love being a part of the menu planning and will HOPEFULLY be more excited about the well-balanced meals they'll be finding on their plates. It's a win-win really.






Small containers like these are fun to use too. Just hot-glue a few magnets to the back of the container to secure it a little better.

Have fun!

And the stories come alive

Have your children choose 2 or 3 books for a different kind of story time this morning.

As you read the stories aloud, have the children pay particular attention to the different activities that take place in the story, and have them choose at least one from each book that they would like to try today.

This morning my girls and I read:

Nothing to Do by Liza Alexander



and my girls chose to wash the dishes (of all things)




Then, it was Clifford The Big Red Dog: The Windy Day by Sonali Fry



From this story they chose to make a painting, just like the character Emily Elizabeth!



The last book in our stack was Strawberry Shortcake: Let's Go Apple Picking
by Molly Kempf



so we decided to do a little experimenting with an apple treat....





..which turned out divine.

They really loved being able to use their imaginations and find ways to make the stories come alive for them.
Give it a try!