I'm so excited to have had the opportunity to work with Klutz this year through my writing with Scholastic, and now? Now I am thrilled, over the moon, totally beside myself now that I get to finally tell you more! This summer we were super busy with our tabletop surprises, and the kids had an absolute blast with them. But we were also busy jaunting around New York City helping our friends at Klutz host a super-cool blog event where kids and parents could chat and craft it up. Believe … [Read more...]
7 ways to get kids writing (and cool writing prompts for kids!)
Friends. It's summer, and if your kids are anything like mine, they want to be outside and they want to be at the pool. Or, okay. They want to be on their iPads playing Minecraft or the computer playing Animal Jam. So writing--actually putting the ole pencil to the paper--is far down on their list of fun things to do while school's out. But I've got a few ideas for you to get our kids writing again. A few fun, totally cool, ways. Honestly, the kids and their neighbor buddies … [Read more...]
kids make their own commercials: creative, techy fun
As part of our tabletop surprises last week, my kids became movie-makers. Though it really didn't start out that way at all. The little tabletop surprise note challenged them to create commercials for a product. That was it. But what they did with it was a whole other ballgame. It was a good reminder for me that kids really, truly need free time to explore and play on their own, no matter the platform. I didn't step-by-step teach them how to use these movie-making … [Read more...]
fun summertime learning for kids: tabletop surprises
Every weekday in the summertime, I start the day by sharing a #tabletopsurprises post. Just one quick picture of what's in store for Maddy, Owen, and Cora for their tabletop surprise that day. Are you on Instagram? If so, I'd love to follow you. And if you're joining us in our tabletop surprises this summer, I'd love, love, love for you to share your photos tagged with #tabletopsurprises -- it's so cool to see what everyone is doing! Use #tabletopsurprises on your photo, and … [Read more...]
bleached out disney t-shirts for the not-so-crafty crafter
We’re all busy. And most of us really like to get a bit crafty but don’t have the time. This little crafty craft is for you. And it’s for me. Because it is so easy. It’s so quick. And the results are really, truly awesome. We wanted to do something to let our kids know that we’re heading to Disney World in the next few days, but I didn’t want to do a full-fledged scavenger hunt like we did before. We didn’t want to do a Disney countdown. We wanted … [Read more...]
Future City: middle school competition inspires future engineers
For the past two years, we've been invited to attend the Future City Competition here in DC. Last year, only Maddy and I attended (It was the very same day our chicks hatched! Ahhhh, memories--), but this year, the whole family got in on the fun. Future City is a middle school engineering competition; this year over 40,000 students from around the world competed. It's really a super-cool event that I love attending with my kids. And I'd love to see more … [Read more...]
new years eve guess the word game
Much like our Christmas Guess the Word Game, the New Year's Eve Guess the Word Game totally rocks. Okay. There you have it. Plain and simple. Rocks. The kids loved playing our holiday version on the way to see their Pennsylvania family this week, so I made another version. Actually, I made both versions on the same day. And actually, the kids helped brainstorm words for both. So fun. Here's the skinny. . . New Year's Eve Guess the Word Game: The premise is the … [Read more...]
photo books for kids and family: 15 best, coolest, most clever and creative
I'm a hardcore fan of the photo book. Actually, I'm a fan of any book, but photo books have a special spot in my heart because I love to make them, and I love to get them. And? They have happily replaced the ole book o' photos that once took me for-ev-er and a day to assemble. Photo books are super as gifts, and they're super as learning tools for kids. Once you get those creative juices flowin' you can really come up with some pretty awesome ways to use photo … [Read more...]
super-easy, homemade photo tiles
I find that no matter the year, I'm always scrambling for last-minute holiday gifts for family. Every year we love to give our family homemade ornaments for the tree--preferably ornaments with our crazy kids' mugs on them. It's so much fun every year to unwrap ornaments as we're decorating the tree and to find photos of our kids when they were younger. A few years back, however, we thought we'd be tricky and trade the ornies in for tiles. And they came … [Read more...]
advent activity calendar: fun, festive family holiday time
It's that time of year again--time for our Advent Activity Calendar! Our Advent Activity Calendar is something we've been doing for the last four years, where we very simply plan a fun, festive, family holiday activity for each day of December. Nothing fancy, crazy, or over-the-top--these are simple, small holiday pleasures that we pencil into this very busy month so that we don't pass them by. Giving activities, family activities, indoor and outdoor activities. … [Read more...]
fall classroom decor: quick and easy for teachers and parents
Fall is here! Already it seems as though the year is moving at light speed. For many of us, whether we're classroom teachers or homeschoolers or parent volunteers, now is a great time to put up some rockstar fall classroom décor. And the quicker and easier the décor, the better. We need quick. We're all busy. No matter what we're doing, if we're working with kids, we're busy. And though teachers will absolutely flip for this stuff, so, too, will … [Read more...]
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