Encouraging a Love of Reading @ The Weekly Kid's Co-op

One of my hopes for J is that he loves reading as much and his father and I do.  So, I'm always keeping my eye out for good blog posts that encourage a love of reading in kids.  I found several great posts all about reading in last week's party that I really liked.  Now, I get to share them with you!

 

1. 10 Tips for Reading with Baby - The Pleasantest Thing.

2. Virtual Bookclub for Kids:  A Good Day - Adventures in Reading with Kids

3. Books: How To Encourage Reading - Lessons Learnt Journal

4. Sunday Morning Reading - The Stay At Home Educator

5. 50+ Chapter Books for Preschoolers and 3 Year Olds - What Do We Do All Day?

 

Now onto the party!  Don't forget to link up and you might be featured here next week!

Fall Bucket List

I love everything about Fall, and am so excited to be in a state where the leaves turn brilliant colors and there’s a crisp chill in the air.  I love blue jeans and boots, scarves, jackets, and sweaters.  I love the comforting smells of stews, breads, and roasted vegetables that come from the kitchen. 

I know we have a few more weeks of summer left, but with September just a few days away, I can’t help but dream of Fall.  So, I’ve made a list of all the wonderful things I want to do with my family this year. 

Here’s my Fall Bucket List.  I hope that you find some things that maybe you’d like to do with your family too!  I’ll be blogging all about our adventures throughout the season, so make sure you follow along.

Come on over to my Facebook page to see what else we’re up to this Fall!

50 Handmade Toys for Kids

I love making toys for J to play with.  Lately it seems like I’ve been lacking inspiration in this area.  So, I thought I’d do some research on DIY toys and then share all the goodies with you!  Some are pretty simple, while others require a bit more skill.  I tried to cover them all!

So get ready for…..

Kid Friendly Meals @ The Kid’s Co-op

I love all the fun kid inspired meals out there.  Last week’s co-op had some really cute ones I thought I’d share.  A couple of these are inspired by books…which makes them even more fantastic!

1. Chicks and Salsa – Creative Connections for Kids

2. Edible Fun: Octopus – Mama Miss

3. Horton Hatches the Egg Salad Sandwich Lunch – Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons

4. Under the Sea: Outdoor Play Lunch – JDaniel4’s Mom

Finding the Balance

I’ve been struggling lately with the blog and I haven’t really understood why.  I thought for sure that it was because of the pregnancy and the need to nap whenever possible.  However, the first trimester has come and gone and my energy level is back to normal.  But blogging is still a struggle some days. 

It’s time for me to stand back and look at life a bit.   Time to find a new balance.  Time to re-prioritize my day to day life.

Family, Me, Blog. 

If you’ve read my guest post over at Crayon Freckles, you know that we recently moved and our lives have completely changed.  My husband is home for a full year with no traveling or deployments.  This is the first year in the 8 years my husband I have been together that he will be home.  He’s also in school and is home a lot throughout the day. 

You would think that would mean that I have more time to blog, more time for me, but In actuality it’s the complete opposite.

DIY Car Wash

J is a huge fan of carwashes and cars.  He’s always asking my husband to take him to the car wash.  Now, we don’t really need the car washed every day, so I decided to make J his own carwash.

It was fairly simple to do.  I didn’t take pics along the way because I did most of it at night and I just kind of improvised my way through it.  But, here are the basic steps I used.

Round-Ups on the weekly Kid’s Co-op

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My favorite blog posts are the ones where a blogger takes a bunch of ideas about the same theme and puts them together in one blog post.  You know the ones…”25 Sensory Ideas”….”Top 10 ways to help an angry child”….etc.  We in the blogging world call them round-ups and  I LOVE them! 

Well, there were more than just a few round-ups linked up to the party last week.  It was tough, but I chose my favorite 3 to feature today.

Cars and Shaving Cream Play

J is obsessed with cars these days and I know that pretty much any activity that involves cars will be a hit with J.  So, when I ran across our can of shaving cream I knew what to add to it.



Let me tell you, this was by far the most successful activity I’ve done with J in months!

Outdoor Water Dispenser

J loves playing with water outside.  His favorite thing to do is filling and dumping all sorts of containers.  It’s  a lot of fun for him…but not always for me.

My problem with this type of play is that J can’t fill the containers by himself. The valve on our water hose is tight and a bit tough for him to turn it off and on.  He also doesn’t have the hand strength to pull the nozzle on the sprayer.  I don’t want to take it off and leave the water on to soak the yard.  So, I was stuck standing  by the water hose filling up containers over and over…and over…and over again.

I a needed a solution to our little water problem…and I found one!

 

pretending at the Weekly Kid’s Co-op

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185 wonderful ideas were shared last week!  For some reason, all the great pretend play activities jumped out at me.  They were seriously great!  So, here ya go…my favorite 3 pretend play ideas from last week.

Bloggers Filling Backpacks

One of my blogging buddies, Andie, over at Crayon Freckles has joined together with The Boys and Girls Club of America, and 40 other bloggers, to make sure that hundreds of children can begin the new school year with school supplies through their Tools for Back to School Campaign.

To help with funding this project, 20 bloggers have contributed to a new ebook full of activities for children.  I am thrilled that I was able to include a few activites of my own!  The best part is that this book is FREE after a donation of at least $10 to this wonderful program. 

So, if you'd like to get your own copy of Bordom-Buster Backpack: 50+ Activiites to Keep Chidren Busy, all you have to do is click the button below and make a $10 (or more) donation to this wonderful program!  Easy huh?!

If you'd like to know more information about this wonderful program, head on over to the Bloggers Filling Backpacks BGCA fundraising page. 

Muffin Tin Fine Motor Play

I love putting together simple invitations to play for J.  I especially like it when the activity focuses on fine motor skills.

Honestly activities like this are super simple and don’t usually require a lot of planning.

Here’s one we did the other day that J just loved!

Making Mommy Friends

If you’ve read my About Me page, you’d see that I’m a military wife.  And, if you’ve been reading for a while, you’d know that we move around the country…a lot.  So far, we have moved twice since I’ve been a Mom. 

One of the  most difficult parts of all the moving is finding good quality Mommy friends.

 

Just for Tots @ The Weekly Kid’s Co-op

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Since J is 2, I’m always looking for great toddler activities to engage him in.  I was thrilled to see some great toddler ideas on the linky party last week.  So, here you go…3 of the best ideas just for toddlers.

Get Organized: Outdoor Toys

I get so frustrated with our outdoor toys.  I really like being organized, but I can’t find a good way to organize all our outdoor stuff!  Everything is packed into a cabinet.  All the stuff is “put away” but something falls out every time I open that cabinet.  There are bubbles, chalk, sand toys, and balls just thrown in there.  It’s getting a bit ridiculous! 

I know I can’t be the only one with this problem.  So, I did some research and found some great solutions for all the outdoor stuff!