The Mother Lode

Crafts and Crochet

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At Home Activities

I’ve had a few friends message me (since I am a stay at home mom) asking for activities to do with little kids while we are all stuck in the house due to Coronavirus quarantine orders. Since I am a little behind on craft projects I had planned to share with you, I figured I can round up a few of my older parenting posts together with easy activities that you can do. Not everyone is going to be doing five hundred crafts a day or going off to the nearest mountain for a hike right now. Most of us just need a few extra things that are easy to set up and give you a nice feeling of togetherness and maybe even a little learning.

Sidewalk Chalk Activities

I love the versatility of sidewalk chalk! Last week, I used it to practice counting and number writing with my four year old. I drew four apples, then a box. He counted the apples, then I had him write the number in the box. Easy and fun practice. We did shapes and other nature pictures like flowers, leaves, basically whatever is quick to draw. Here is the link to my other sidewalk chalk activities!

Inside Physical Movement Activities

Parents of the world who are living in metro areas without easy access to the outdoors right now: my heart goes out to you! It is so hard to keep it together with little ones cooped up inside, particularly this time of year when we are coming into the Spring and ready more than ever to play outside. These activities are great for indoors with toddlers and little kids. Check out the yoga, I annoyingly tell everyone about it. It’s so fun and relaxing for mommy and daddy to do, too! We’ve done so many, that now I know enough poses to make up a story myself and lead them.

NATURE

I can’t keep out of my garden right now. Spending time pulling at the weeds, basking in the relative quiet as the kids play in the backyard is truly helping me stay relatively calm during this uncertain time. (Seriously, we were out for an hour earlier and we’ll probably do another hour soon!) This list has simple nature activities for your little ones that take very little to set up and can spark rich conversations.

playing outside
My oldest playing bubbles last year.

Toy Clean-up Tricks

I don’t know about you, but having the kids at home ALL THE TIME right now is causing an explosion of toys. With my oldest in Kindergarten this year and preschool for my 4 yr old, I had gotten used to it being less of a mess! I set up part of the playroom to be our schoolwork space and put a few extra toys in the basement to help with that. This post has several tricks to getting little ones to help put away toys. (Sidenote: why can’t they just listen the first time? Heck, I will gladly take the second time!)

Okay, parents of the world. I like to be honest, you know. This SUCKS. I know there are plenty of worse things people have gone through in their lives. This, though, is so wrought with the unknown that it’s scary and weird, and are we doing the right thing? Are we just throwing the economy in the toilet? Is any of this going to be worth it? I DON’T KNOW. I’m going to remain hopeful and take my advice from Frozen II and “do the next right thing” for my family and loved ones and anyone that I can. Right now that looks like staying at home with three little boys and doing my best to love and educate them. Give yourself the space to be upset about this. Then, move forward, do your best, and we can get through it!

Hugs to you all during this crazy time and shout-outs to the doctors, nurses, food service workers, police and first-responders, janitorial/housekeeping staff, social workers, scientists, factory workers, government employees, news media employees, and countless others whose jobs provide necessary services to our communities that we can’t function without. Prayers of health, safety, and peace during this (let’s face it) VERY HARD time.

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DIY Crochet Flower Wreath

The very first crochet item I ever made was a wonky scarf for my mom. It was uneven FOR SURE. I ended up crocheting a flower to add to it, and it did help it look a little better. It was still bad, though, haha. With practice comes consistency, and the last several larger projects I’ve made have really shown me how much muscle memory my hands have gained in keeping stitches even in size. So, if you are just starting out, or creating a project here and there, know that with practice and time comes consistency to make a beautiful piece!

In the meantime, there are many crochet flower patterns that are easy to follow and require only a few simple stitches. They are very forgiving since they are attempting to mimic real flowers, which aren’t uniform anyway. You can easily master a few different flower designs and work them up in your favorite colors to adorn anything! They are popular on headbands, pillows, and occasionally garments. I’ve seen a few wreaths out there that are entirely made from crocheted flowers. I wanted to mimic that but with a little less time and a little more simplicity.

Read on for how I created this Crochet Flower wreath!

stick wreath with crocheted flowers

I bought this gorgeous Lion Brand Yarn called Coboo made from cotton and bamboo. The colors are so pretty and it’s very silky soft. I bought three colors from JoAnn Fabrics to create this bold spring wreath and I’m so happy with how it turned out. The stick wreath form I got at Michael’s for like 5 bucks, and since I just attached the flowers with wire, I can use the wreath form again if I want to create something else!

Step One: Choose your yarn. Any yarn will do for making flowers. For these, I wanted smaller, tightly stitched flowers, so I used the Coboo yarn which is a weight 3 yarn. Coordinate your hook with your chosen yarn. Again, I was going for smaller with mine, so I went down a hook size from the recommendation on the yarn package. (I used an E hook.)

Step Two: Crochet flowers in varying sizes, about 6. Here is an easy pattern by Crochet 365. This tutorial from Love Life Yarn I used for the larger carnation flowers. Then crochet two leaves to go with the flowers. You can find a simple leaf pattern from MamaChee. Weave in the ends of everything and cut the excess yarn.

crochet leaf

Step Three: Arrange the flowers and leaves on the wreath so you can plan which shall go on first and which shall overlap on top. Attach the leaf at the top using floral wire. Cut a length of floral wire of about 8 inches. Bend in half and feed part of it through the back of your leaf. Once it feels securely part of the leaf, weave the wire onto the sticks of the wreath as you would a Christmas pick. For the flowers, I bent a bit of the length of wire at the top, then I stuck it through the center of the flower at the back sideways and bent it in the center of the flower, so as to have two lengths of wire coming from the center. These lengths I wound together and then placed into the wreath and wove a bit around the sticks. Continue attaching each element until your desired effect is achieved!

back of crochet flower

I hope you liked this project! I’m already envisioning a sunflower one in the height of summer, wouldn’t that be lovely!?

Front door wreath

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Simple Sewing Patterns for Beginners

So to let you know that I am not a sewing genius: my original intention for this post was to be a pattern/tutorial of my own! Alas the finished product does not look awesome, so it will be back to the drawing board, er sewing machine. In the meantime, I want to share these simple patterns that even I thought were easy! They can help you learn some sewing skills and feel the rush of accomplishment from making something yourself. (A feeling I am not having right now!)

First is this versatile and easy fleece hat pattern. I’ve actually even made it with a knit fabric once for a costume and it turned out nicely! This pattern is so easy to follow. The pattern pieces print on four sheets of paper. You trim and tape the sheets together. Then cut two pieces of fleece and follow the directions for sewing. It is a VERY forgiving pattern and one of the first things I ever made. I was making Pokemon costumes for my sons about 3 years ago and the pattern called for a complicated hood. I was having trouble with it and decided to hunt for an easy hat pattern and landed on this! There are many cool things you could do to personalize this hat. I just made a 101 Dalmatians one from fleece for my 6 yr old and it is becoming a favorite for wearing under a hood when it is very cold outside. The fleece website the pattern is from has many options, too!

Next is this pattern for an adorable super hero cape for your little one! I had so much fun making these for my kids. The first one I made out of an old Virginia Tech shirt of my husbands and it was so cute! Since then I made a few for my nieces and I just made one this past Halloween to dress up my 4 year old like Batman. It was so cute and he just told me the other day he wants to take it for his next show and tell at school.

Baby items are fun to make and personalize them with funky fabric. I made a Mickey Mouse lovey blanket for a family member and it was very simple and one of my favorite makes. I also liked making this pacifier clip for my own baby and I think we actually used it with my third one as well. I liked the clip on it because it was strong but not easy for them to get pinched with.

My kids still love this tiny pillow I made for the first long car ride when they were little! It’s so easy and cozy. They play with their stuffed animals with it, sleep with it occasionally, and we’ve used it in the car many times. Somehow I’ve managed to not make anymore of them, but we are heading to the Outer Banks this summer for vacation and that means at least an 8 hour car ride so I think I better get busy!

My last one to share is a heat pack! I love this pattern and I’ve made so many. You can make them in all different sizes. In the fall, I made a new one for my dad and with the leftover scraps, I made two little bean bag sized ones for when my boys get an ear infection. My 3 year old won’t sleep without it right now as he and I both just can’t kick the sinus congestion from a cold!

What are some easy sewing patterns you like? Share them with me in the comments!

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Printable Medicine Tracker

My kids have been sick on and off since December 31st and I am OVER it. At one point there were three different people on antibiotics. I ended up buying like 15 new toothbrushes so I could keep changing the kids toothbrushes due to strep. We’re finally mostly healthy.

Since I am forgetful, I write everything down. Everytime I gave someone a fever reducer, I was scribbling on scrap papers to know when the next dose should be. I know families with medical issues keep records in planners, etc. I didn’t need that. I needed something to just keep track for the few weeks that everyone was sick. This medicine tracker is made to conveniently write down when each kid had fever reducer so you don’t have to try to get your fog-brain to remember at 2am when someone is crying.

printable medicine tracker
So easy to keep track!

This printable is made to be used in a couple of ways. I have a little 3M laminator. I laminated it, stuck some magnets to the back and next time I need to track the kids medicine doses, I can easily keep it on the fridge and use a dry erase marker on it. You could also put it in a plastic sleeve protector and dry erase on that to re-use it. I created the document so that it wouldn’t be too wasteful to use a new one each time, because you can track four days on each sheet that prints. If you are extra earth conscious, you could even print on the backside and get 8 days on one sheet of paper.

I added this printable PDF to my Google Drive and you can print it there! Just click the photo below and you can access it. I hope this sheet is helpful for your family, because it is ROUGH when the kids are sick and the last thing you should have to worry about is overdosing on the Ibprofen! Let me know in the comments if you like this as is. I prefer the smaller size to take up less room, but I do have a larger size I could share, too. I just went with what I felt would be useful and usable for me!

Just click the photo which will take you right to the PDF in Google Docs!

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DIY “Beautiful Stuff” Bird Feeder

DIY bird feeder
My DIY bird feeder made of recycled materials!

One of the things I love about our home is the trees in our yard! We have such a variety and I love how it feels like a forest in parts of the yard. I also really enjoy the birds! We’ve seen woodpeckers on the pine trees in the front yard, blue jays, chickadees, robins, and cardinals in the backyard. We’ve even had wild turkeys in our backyard! In the fall, the kids made pine cone bird feeders at school, and we used almond butter, pine cones, and birdseed to make some more to go with them. They look cute hanging from the magnolia tree in the yard. They are all nearly empty, now! It’s been great to watch the birds from the windows.

What seems like forever ago, I taught in a daycare in Virginia. The school was “Reggio-Emilia” based, which is similar to Montessori. We had a great art teacher there who taught me about “beautiful stuff.” This is a teaching idea from the book Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini. The gist of it is that found materials in nature, leftover scraps, recyclables can all be made into beautiful stuff: art, usable items, sculpture. I had students making cars from cardboard with milk top wheels, teachers used drink caps to create mosaics with their classes, etc. I loved it then, and I still love it. I am in the habit of keeping what I think of as beautiful stuff. Basically, if it can be hot-glued, painted, or colored with Sharpie markers, I will keep it for a “project.” (Honestly, I’m lucky my husband doesn’t throw my “beautiful stuff” out when I’m not home.) I love to make things out of old packaging like yogurt cups, soda bottles, clementine boxes, cardboard, etc.

burlap

So my love for the birds and beautiful stuff collided this week to make a cute bird feeder! Last year I made a bird feeder from a soda bottle and a spoon and it turned out decent, but it didn’t work perfectly. This week, I made a better one! The kids and I used old yogurt cups to hold the bird seed, and the top from a plastic candy container (those hard plastic Ferrero Rocher ones.) It turned out so cute and it lets the bird seed out better. I’m hoping it keeps the birds coming and my boys happy as we watch them having a snack.

Materials list

  • empty, clean, yogurt cups (2)
  • bottom from Ferrero Rocher chocolates (anything that you can use as a tray for the birdseed to spill onto)
  • burlap (probably about a 12×12 inch square piece
  • hot glue gun
  • x-acto knife (you could probably use a box cutter razor, too, if its very sharp.)
  • sharpie markers
  • sequins
  • picture hanging kit pieces, yarn
  • birdseed
sharpie marker on yogurt cup
My little one’s Sharpie art. These picture hangers worked great for this project.

First, I let the kids draw on the yogurt cups with Sharpie markers. While they did that, I hot glued the burlap along the bottom and up onto the “tray” where the seed will spill. I didn’t worry about it being neat, as the birdseed will cover it. Once the kids were finished with their drawing, I used an x-acto knife to cut two triangles on each side of the bottom cup. The top cup got one triangle cut and bent instead of cut entirely out. This is where you can refill the feeder. I used picture hangers because that is what I had, but you could also cut small holes in the top and string the yarn through. I hot glued the bottom cup to the tray, then the top cup on top of that! I finished by hot gluing some big sequins that I bought simply because I have no self-control at the craft store. The kids immediately wanted to feed the birds, so we filled it up and went outside to hang it! I strung it between the branches so hopefully more birds will eat it and not just the fluffy tailed rats, I mean, squirrels. Have confidence in your crafting and you can DIY anything!

DIY BIRD FEEDER PIN

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5 Beginner Crochet Patterns

1.5 Hour Beanie by Make and Do Crew

I love the patterns from Make and Do Crew! They are fun and this one is so quick, you won’t believe it! I did change it a bit to use Caron Simply Soft yarn instead of the bulkier yarn that they used in the original pattern. This did make it take longer for me, but it was still quick to me! I usually make hats in the round which sometimes feels like it takes all of forever.

shows my version of the 1.5 hour beanie by Make and Do Crew
My oldest in the hat I made for his cousin that he desperately wanted for himself!

Waffle Dishcloth by Hooked on Tilly

I love this dishcloth as practice for Front Post Double Crochet. Since it is a dishcloth, I feel like the pressure is off to be perfect with your stitches, so this project is great for learning the Front Post Double Crochet (FPDC.) When you progress to making more complicated projects, particularly hats in the round and sweaters, the FPDC stitch is wonderful for adding ribbing at the edges, and is commonly used. I’m working on the finishing touches on my own hat pattern right now that has ribbing and it is turning out so cute!

Waffle dishcloth by Hooked on Tilly
My curated Instagram post, haha!

This one that I made has two extra rows of single crochet to make it a little bigger. I made it for my mother-in-law and she likes larger dishcloths.

Velvet Scrunchie by RthingsCreations on Sierra’s Crafty Creations Blog

Love these scrunchies! Velvet is definitely having a moment again and these scrunchies are a great way to wear it. I’ve made several and they are a quick, satisfying project. I will say that they are pretty tight on your hair when you make them with a regular hair-tie in the middle. You can make them a bit more loose by tying or sewing a length of elastic instead for the middle. That’s what I did. I actually intended to give them to my niece, but they are so comfortable, I may have to make more for her because I keep wearing them!

velvet scrunchie
My scrunchie selfie!

Chi-Town Crochet Cowl by Kathy Kelly (crochetbird)

I adore this pattern. It is so easy, particularly because gauge is not important, so if you are just starting out and learning the right tension, it is a great pattern. You only need two stitches: double crochet and single crochet. Another reason I like this pattern is that you can really use any yarn to make it! Seriously, I’ve used Lion Brand Homespun which is a bulky yarn as well as the Caron Simply Soft with lovely results.

my version of cowl by Crochet bird
Love the bright colors on this cowl. This yarn is from a Caron Cake.

Crochet Triangle Wrap by Mama in a Stitch

This wrap is a great starter pattern. The gauge isn’t super-important and the stitches are easy. It is one of those projects which after a few rows you don’t need to look at the pattern anymore. (These are my favorite kind of patterns!) This wrap looks wonderful in a variegated color yarn. I also made one as a stash buster, using several leftover colors I had in the same type of yarn. I made two wraps this past fall and loved the way they turned out. One of them I made fairly small, then seamed the back to create a cowl and it turned out so pretty.

Granny triangle wrap
LOVE the way this one turned out. I particularly like the tassels, I have one more skein of this yarn somewhere and I want to make a matching hat!
granny triangle cowl
This is one of my favorite yarns (Lion Brand Homespun) and I had several small balls of it leftover from various projects which turned into this soft and beautiful cowl!

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The Tooth Fairy

Well, it happened. My oldest started losing his baby teeth and my husband and I started losing our minds that the kids are growing up.

A couple of months ago, the first one started wiggling. As the weeks went on and it became more loose, my 6 year old became more anxious. He often experiences nerves for unknown firsts like this. He was nervous that it would hurt, wondering when it was going to come out, etc. In order to turn his fears to excitement, my husband decided that the tooth fairy would bring our son a special “ticket” for a sleepover at my in-laws. I remember explicitly saying, “Oh is she?! Wow, that’s a pretty cool tooth fairy.” As I was inwardly thinking, “Well there has been neither consultation with the tooth fairy nor my in-laws on this ticket thing!” I will say that this did seem to calm my son’s fears and he thought it would be so awesome to get this “ticket,” which he mentioned repeatedly in the following weeks.

The tooth loosened even more, and one day my son came home from school with a little tooth locket necklace from his teacher. I knew my evening would now be spent on the computer to make sure the tooth fairy could bring him this “ticket.”

A week later, he lost his 2nd tooth and was rewarded with another “ticket,” this time for a trip to the park with his dad to play Pokemon Go. (You see what that tooth fairy did there, turning it back to the dad.)

I’ve decided to allow the tooth fairy to continue bringing “tickets” for teeth. (She also leaves a dollar.) I think it’s something that can grow with my children and can be easily done at the last minute which is in my wheelhouse! If you think the tooth fairy might want to bring your child a “ticket,” too, you can get the PDF, just click the image below!

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7 Ways to Get through it with the kids when your spouse travels for work

My husband has been traveling for his job semi regularly for the last two years. A few months ago, he got a promotion (Great job, honey!) and now he is traveling more often. It’s hard when he is away, but it is a sacrifice that allows him to provide for our family while I stay at home with the kids, so we’ve accepted it pretty well! Usually he is only gone for a few days or during the week once or twice a month, so it really isn’t too bad. I was thinking about this week that he’s been gone and how not terrible it’s been, so I am clearly an expert and will now share my wisdom:

First, as most moms need to about many things to save their sanity, I LOWER MY STANDARDS. As in, probably the kids will get one bath in the four days he is gone, and that’s okay! As in, there will likely be less sleep in the house for everyone and I will be running short on patience. As in, maybe we’ll use paper plates for dinner. Maybe the toys won’t get picked up for a few days. Maybe my hair will go unwashed for several days. You get the picture.

Second, I like to do stuff. Plan to take them out to that one playground we don’t go to that often. Have a little movie or game night. Visit my parents with them. Go out for a walk. Do a craft. Let them get out the play-doh for an hour. They are usually a little cranky that fun daddy is away, so I try to add in one extra-fun-just-because-I-love-you thing each day while he is gone.

Okay, if your spouse has ever been gone more than 3 days in a row while you are at home with young children, you know it is exhausting. You can totally handle it, but it is more tiring than the usual rig-amoral because you have to be responsible for everything for that amount of time. So my next tip is to find a way to have a break. Ask someone for help, even if its just an hour. Put on Paw Patrol and call a friend because you need to talk about something other than good ‘ole Mayor Goodway. I am very lucky that my parents and my in-laws live literally five minutes away and I take advantage! My husband is away as I am writing this and we had dinner at my parents house last night which was a perfect break for me. I didn’t have to cook dinner, I had adult conversation, and someone else who loves my children was there with me to share the load a little. If you aren’t in this situation, I encourage you to find a mom tribe! Talk with other moms from school, at church, or at work. Grow a little community. Before my kids came along, I saw some wonderful families rely on each other at the different daycares where I taught. Often people talk about not having “villages” to help raise our children, but I think we can build our own little communities if we are willing to put the work in to foster new relationships.

I am not a planner by nature. I may ruminate and have several options in my brain for what might occur, but I am a last-minute decision maker for sure. When I know my husband has a trip coming up, though, I have to plan ahead. I check if I have anything scheduled that I need care for the kids. I figure out a general plan for myself to act as a guide, like planning a library trip Tuesday and a craft store trip Wednesday. Usually I even meal plan! (Well my version of meal plan which is to grocery shop with several intended meals but no set day to have each thing.)

The other thing I do is enjoy it! Yes, it’s true, my darling, I enjoy when you are gone and I stay up too late watching reruns of Parks and Rec and catching up on the Voice. Now, my husband would compromise if I really wanted to watch something other than sports when he is home, but I’m not a true TV lover anyway and we have a DVR. So when he is gone, buh-bye ESPN and hello NBC. I also enjoy quiet reading time when he is gone. I even sometimes set little goals for myself to accomplish while he is away. It’s hard to get certain household chores done with the kids afoot, but I hate doing them at night when I’d rather lounge on the couch with my husband, so I try to get through them when he is away.

Another strategy is trying to plan before the trip when we are going to communicate during his time away. He is often a few time zones away, so this gets tricky! He always figures out a good time to call, though, and our kids are so little they usually just want a quick hello and they are reassured.

The last thing is planning family fun for when he returns. We often have Burger King family dates when he gets home on a Friday and the kids love it. A few weeks ago he took the older boys mini-golfing and my oldest has been talking all week about Daddy taking him to mini-golf when he gets back because it’s a special day. So that may be in our future this weekend!

I hope you feel encouraged to tackle your next solo parenting journey with joy instead of dread. You can do it! Comment with your go-to survival tactics!

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7 Favorite Preschool Board Games

The way we play with our kids changes constantly. As they grow, their abilities expand and we sometimes struggle to keep up. Preschoolers in particular have very specific ideas about how to play. They no longer allow you to lead the play, and often get frustrated because they want you to play a certain way (which they neglect to tell you.) This leaves you feeling frustrated! When this started happening with my boys, I felt sad to leave behind the restaurant play, block building, and ball rolling that we had done together. Those play sessions have now turned to Legos, puzzles, card games, and board games. The board games are fun! I love to get them as gifts for my boys because I think they are so much more valuable than the typical character toys they want. Case in point, last night my husband and I went out to dinner after parent-teacher conferences. When we got back to my in-laws to pick up the kids, they were playing a game with their grandpa called Tip-It. (I never heard of this game!) They were having so much fun with this old balance game and continued to play for nearly an hour. AN HOUR. I mean, really, I’m not saying it’s a miracle, but it is not easy for little ones to stay focused on one thing like that for so long! So as the holidays are approaching and you are dreading the influx of new toys, consider suggesting some games for your family. Here are some of our favorites:

Silly Street

This is such a wonderful game for teaching your child how to play board games. It is very simple, but you have to read the cards, so adult help is typically necessary. The cards direct you to do, find, or sing all manner of silly things. It is truly designed to teach kids various skills: coping with disappointment, being the leader, and being creative. I really like it and it is one of my favorite things that Santa brought our family last year for Christmas.

playing candy land
My father-in-law playing Candy Land with my oldest son

Candy Land

It’s a classic for a reason. It’s so simple to play that they can do it independently. I like it for teaching them how to play a board game, and increasing their ability to focus on one thing for a longer period of time. It is seriously boring for parents and has limited challenges for the kids, though. This leads me to mention it as truly a beginner game, not as beloved and well-played as others on this list.

Eye Found It!

This game is actually available in two versions: as a card game or a board game. The card game is awesome, but we’ll discuss the board game here. This game is meant to be cooperative, meaning that the players either all win together or all lose together. This game is a Disney game: the board has depictions of several Disney worlds on it. Players move along the large game board, and on certain turns, everyone searches for hidden pictures in the scenes. (For example: apples, flowerpots, swords) All the players get to then move the number of objects found towards Cinderella’s castle at the end of the game board. Eye Found It is such a fun game. It’s so interactive and the kids love finding everything!

Disney eye found it game
Disney Eye Found It: one of my favorite preschool games

Count Your Chickens!

This game is also a cooperative game! It’s very simple for little kids and they can play pretty well without much help from grown-ups. Basically, it has a bunch of little chick pieces and one mother hen. Each player takes a turn with the spinner and puts chicks back into the hen house before mother hen gets to it at the end of the game board. It’s easy and the kids don’t even have to know the numerals to play, as long as they can count. This game is a quick one that they like to play over and over to try to win!

Yeti in my Spaghetti

Even though I find the plastic spaghetti pieces EVERYWHERE, I still like this game. It’s simple, silly, and fun. There is a red bowl. Lay the spaghetti across the top of the bowl, put the little yeti figure on top, and take turns pulling out spaghetti without letting the yeti fall. Kinda like Jenga meets Don’t Break the Ice.

My First Bananagrams

I like word games and have always liked Bananagrams. Someone gave my oldest son the preschool version of this game and we loved using it this summer as good practice for Kindergarten. It is definitely for an older preschooler. My 4 yr old likes playing with the letter tiles, but can’t engage much independently. It’s so versatile, and I think just playing with the tiles has helped his lower case letter recognition. I did word families with it with my oldest and it was so beneficial for him. The true directions for the game are to get a bunch of letters and use all the tiles to form your own crossword puzzle before the other players, using every tile you have. The preschool version has great suggestions of other “games” to play with the tiles to build literacy skills.

Memory Match Game

There are oodles of versions of this game. We have a Disney Cars movie version. It’s fun and the kids can really build their focus and memory skills by playing it. Now the version we have can be frustrating because so many cards look similar, so I take about half of the cards away when we play. My 4 and 6 year old are just starting to play this game without much help from me. Target usually has several versions of this game on sale for like $4 near Christmas. I think it’s worth that!

I hope you check out some of these games! They really help us with quality family time as our kids get a little older. Mention games your family loves in the comments! I’d love to try some new ones!

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6 Questions to ask about your Kindergartener’s Day

We all want to know: What do they DO all day in Kindergarten? I don’t know about your kids, but when I pick up my kids, my son gets in the car and he is EXHAUSTED. I usually don’t ask anything right away other than a brief “How was your day?”

Later on in the evening, though, I like to ask him about what is happening in the classroom. Now, you may have a Chatty Kathy, but I do not. I ask specific questions to get a clear (well, somewhat foggy, but clear enough) picture of what is happening at school.

1.) Did you read any stories today? In Kindergarten, they are reading every day. This is one of my go to questions. My son’s teacher is reading them a chapter a day from a chapter book, also, and this is great for their reading comprehension. Anytime you can reinforce their learning from school with minimal effort I am all about it.

2.) What specials did you have today? My son has at least one “special” (art, gym, etc.) every day. And the follow-up: What did you do in that special?

3.) Who did you sit next to at lunch? Always good to find out about their friends! I also ask this question to remind him to EAT at the lunch table.

4.) What did you write your name on today? Name writing practice is BIG in Kindergarten and this is a great way to find out what content they were learning about.

5.) What did you laugh about today? I like to ask this to remind him that although school is important for learning, it is also fun!

6.) What rules did you learn about? Kindergarten is sometimes the first school experience for kids. There are often many rules the teachers are trying to establish to create a harmonious environment. It’s great to help reinforce these at home, and you many even find out about your child’s ability or inability to follow the rules at school from their responses to you!

Leave me a comment: What do you ask your child about when they come home from Kindergarten?

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