Not Really A Wordless Wednesday...

It is freezing outside today and all the local schools are closed. We of course are still in school, just snuggly warm in jammies! We will be playing board games tonight for wireless wednesday in class and later on as a family when dad gets home! There is nothing we like better than a giant blanket in front of the fireplace and some boardgame fun! This is a vintage Scrabble board given to me by my husband's grandmother and it always stays out like this. It encourages the kids to word play every now and then and more of the time we can't help but create a word and leave it for the next passerby.

Snap Circuits are BIG in our home, we own too many sets, so I had to come up with a fun and visual way to organize them!  

Enjoy every minute my friends!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Around our Home...

Saturday is welcome here any day! We have been taking it easy this week at school and just enjoying nature as it happens all around us. We are still getting our studies in but spending more focus on the weather. We are experiencing some serious flooding on our area and in 1 day we had rain, snow, hail and then back to snow. So crazy.

A favorite in our home for awhile now are these bookshelves that we put next to each child's bed. They each hold their bank, books they are reading and a few prized possessions. The rules are that they have to keep them neat and clean and my kids are absolutely doing so well with this. 

How do you organize your games in the playroom? We have a shelf for kids games (here) and another shelf for older type games that we all play as a family more often (upstairs near the fireplace). These 2 shelves hold oversized toys on the top shelf and then games for kids on the bottom. Our Ikea Expedit holds more large toys along with a small microwave for them to have popcorn when they are watching a movie in the playroom. On top there are fun books that don't really belong in the classroom, because they are most loved! Markers and our favorite Globe Lamp!!!! I also have a little reading nook tucked into the corner, where the kids can often be found curled up in pairs reading.

Have your students decorate a tongue depressor with some markers and you have an easy reading pointer. This allows the child to stop and read each word, only focusing on one and not the entire sentence. They are also flat enough to serve as bookmarks! Inexpensive and fun.

Enjoy your Saturday my friends! It is 2:30am, so I will bid you goodnight!

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Fun in the Sand!

The weather was outrageous today, so we headed off to the sand park! We have this fabulous park that has walking trails and a man made waterway for fishing and the like. It at one point also had a carved out area for a beach, but after only a few truckloads of sand, they abandoned the idea and left it as is. This small area is awesome for beach play on a day not hot enough to go in the water and it's quite the hidden gem, that there is never anyone over there! PERFECTION!

 I snagged one of the mesh bags from the 5 pack I got at the Dollar store and filled it with all kinds of recycled goodies that would be perfect for sand play. As you know, I LOVE using recycled items for the kids playtime and the best part? If they break or get lost, no big deal!!!

 Kids cups from restaurants are so easy to wash out and toss aside to keep for the kids to play with! Crystal Light containers, yogurt cups, plastic spoons and other goodies can go such a long way!

 I threw in a ziploc baggie of coffee stirrer straws and scrap paper triangles and the kids made flags with them too!! It was such a blast to see them put 2 and 2 together!!

 I also added in scoops and pitchers picked up at tag sales! I never spend more than .25 for each item, so that they can have more and it's no biggie if it gets lost!

All recyclables and so much fun! These items mostly were free and some as much as .05 and yet they equaled hours of fun and play!!

What's your thrifty secret?

Old is New Again!

Would you like your kids to read more? Look at books? I have the perfect solution!

We have a VAST collection of books (2 book cases in common areas, the boys have 1 and Autumn has 2, we have 1 small one in our room), we are BIG readers and love nothing more than to sit on a blanket in the park, thumbing through a book.

Sometimes, old favorites get lost and are never seen or heard from again! I picked up a fantastic paper sorter at a tag sale for .50 and popped it on top of our nature table! I went into each book shelf and grabbed 1 book, then I put 1 book in each paper slot. Within MINUTES, the kids were curious as to what was in there and they grabbed a book and sat and leafed through! Then they traded and did it all over again! It's amazing how putting something on display, makes it new again!

Try it!