Food and laundry. Those two seemingly neverending duties are ever before us! While our Laundry Clean 'N' Flip should take care of the laundry problem (or teach your kids to take care of it) we thought we'd offer some fun food ideas for back to school.

 

Now, how cute is this?!

 

 

 Or this?

 

 

I think these are SO fun! Visit Sycamorestirrings Blog HERE  for Muffin Tin Monday and links to some creative mommies who share what they include in their muffin tins. HERE is an explanation of the what and why behind the concept. I LOVE having other people be creative for me so I can just copy.

 

You could even put a child in charge and challenge them to incorporate all the food groups. I think this is a great way to entice children to try foods they might otherwise bypass.

 

And, if you'd like some recipes....

 

Shiloah Baker of Homemaking Cottage has made her short Creative Lunches ebook available to our readers for free. Just visit our Only Mom Can... page and click on the link in the upper right corner.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Hidden Treasure

Have your children create treasure hunts for one another. Each child hides a prize (make them hunt for their afternoon snack!) and creates a series of clues to lead another child to the bounty. While a lot of fun, this is good practice in thinking skills, following directions and communication.

My son and I had to do this as part of an exercise when preparing for a mission trip to Mexico. We did surprisingly well, I might add!
Set up partners and sit them in chairs sitting back to back. One partner has a piece of paper with a design on it. (Maybe a rectangle, circle and triangle intersecting or overlapping) The partner with the picture describes the design to the other partner who then tries to draw it. This is more difficult that it sounds and is GREAT for communication and listening skills. It's fun to examine the completed product and see where you went wrong. Was it faulty instruction or a failure in following directions?

Give your children a construction paper cutout of an animal, plant or object. Provide them with a thesaurus and have them fill in the shape with as many adjectives as they can find to describe their shape.

 

In preparing for the upcoming school year I've come across some wonderful planning resources.

 

Want to find Bible stories that correspond to theperiod of history that you are currently studying? Or even just read through the Old Testament in chronological order? If so, you'll want to bookmark THIS PAGE.

 

I really like these FREE vocabulary pages from Notebooking Nook. They even have versions for older and younger students.

 

Need a map? WorldAtlas.com will have what you need!

 

I LOVE incorporating historical literature into our studies. I'm convinced this is largely the reason my children adore history. I was very excited to find this page listing Books to Supplement History.And she also has a lit of Movies to Supplement History page!

These were a huge help to my planning.

 

Our new Times Tales is finally here.  After years of requests to add the upper 3's and 4's we've finally done added them. In addition, the program has updated pictures so the stories have a less "childish" feel and can more successfully be utilized with older children still needing to learn their facts. In addition, we include the division facts in the form of flashcards. We're very excited about what we anticipate to be the "final" version of Times Tales. We know you will be, too. Check it out HERE.