Family Night - Weeds in our life

For Family Home Evening, we talked about Weeds in our life.

Weeds of contention, Weeds of behaviors.

We talked about how our family is a garden, and we need to get the weeds out of our life.

We talked about how weeds can suffocate plants, and our lives.

So, we went out to the front yard, and took care of the weeds.

We bought the kids gloves and spades and rakes.

Insert evil laugh (below)

Then we went to a nursery to buy some new flowers and trees.

I'm a sucker for succulents.

Then we came home and planted.

The kids were filthy, happy, and totally got the message. I love when everything just comes together like that.

PS - When did my kids get so huge?

SBBK - Cooking 1

Summer Boredom Buster Kids - COOKING!

My kids love to be involved in the kitchen.

How about yours?

This week, I have 4 simple ideas to get your kids in the kitchen with minimal mess.

First up, Scrambled Eggs.

My oldest will be 8 next month and I thought he should be able to handle scrambled eggs.

***

In my house during the school year, I have designated days for breakfasts.

Monday and Friday is cold cereal

Tuesday is Eggs (in some form) and toast

Wednesday is Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Cracked Wheat, 

or the like (my 6 year old says Porridge) usually served with fruit and milk

Thursdays is Muffins (which I make the night before)

Saturday is Daddy's Breakfast (usually fancy pancakes)

Sunday we have a Fun Breakfast for dinner so the morning is usually bagels or cereal.

This helps get good food into my kids, and helps us not go through 12 boxes of cereal a week.

Because my husbands favorite thing is cereal. He even eats it for dessert sometimes.

I am confident that my 6.5 year old could make scrambled eggs as well.
But, my almost 8 year old would like to try to make them regularly for the family. So here's what he did.

I usually have a plate near the eggs for the cracked ones to go. 

Less mess. 

We also had some left over strawberries so I had him cut those too.

No complaints!

I usually make all eggs with oil instead of butter. They fry up better, in my opinion.

SBBK - Games 1

Summer Boredom Buster Kids - Games!

This game is called "what's missing?"

I got a tray, put random items on it and then walked away.

Took something off the tray and had them guess what was missing.

We did this several times, and sometimes I added something instead of taking something away.

Later, I let each of them be in charge of taking away and having everyone else guess.

They loved that, quite a bit!

SBBK - Math 3

Summer Boredom Buster Kids - Math!

M&M Math! (Toddlers)

I drew circles in M&M colors.

I wrote a number in each circle and my 3 year old had to put the right color and number in each circle.

Seen below:

My 2.5 year old just got circles and had to put the M&M in the right colored circle. Then we counted them.

Seen Below:

They both loved this.

They ate and counted over and over. I had happy toddlers at snack time. :D

This was very simple and you could do it with skittles, or jujubees, or any colored candy!

SBBK - Math 2

Summer Boredom Buster Kids - Math!

So, while the older 2 were working on TOP IT! My younger 3 were working on the number 3, 4, and 5.

I printed the worksheets from HERE or you can check out ALL of their printables 

from First-School HERE they have so many worksheets! Check them out! 

I let them use markers this time. Next time, we will do colored pencils.

They loved this, and my 5 year old (kinder) thought this was too easy for her, and eventually joined in on Top It! My 3 year old and 2 year old had a blast with this and asked "why not we doing 1 and 2?"

This is a perfect quiet activity when you are trying to make dinner too!

SBBK - Math 1

Summer Boredom Buster Kids - Math!

I typically do one Math Activity in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

Follow Along, it is fun!

This is where I hid the sign.

The kids did their morning routine, and then came downstairs.

Since this activity is not for all ages, I had two games prepared.

I found these Math games via my son's teacher. You can print them HERE from Serenade to Second Grade.

Since I will have a 3rd grader and a 1st Grader, I thought this would be a fun game to kick start our summer.

They loved this game, and eventually added 2 decks to this stack.

Then I taught them how to play WAR.

This was a good 20 minute activity.

Ages 4+ depending on your child's knowledge numbers and their placement.

Name Recognition #9

My intention was to work on lowercase letters, but this bunch of cuties preferred to copy the letters.

So, that is what we did.

I found these:

We put them in a BIG pile and then I passed them out. They lined them up on my sheets and wrote the letter under. After they wrote the letter, they got to eat the gummi letter!

This was another fun and quiet activity. We will do it again because gummi letters are awesome!

Name Recognition #8

Magnet Letters!

Cheap Small Cookie Sheets and a Tub of These Foam Letters is all you need.

I chose foam because it is quiet.

First I let them free play. Then we sorted by color.

 Then we spelled our names. I made cards for them to copy the order of their names. We practiced first, middle, and last names. 

Sometimes we use these for Sunday centers. Sometimes we use these for quiet time.

I have even used them for spelling words.

Another fun activity that costs less than $16 for years of playtime.

Another use for these Magnets is match the sound to the letter game.

"This letter says Oooh" 

Name Recognition #7

Tot School/Preschool Activity

Need help recognizing and writing the alphabet? How about your child's name? Here is a perfect activity!

I prewrote the Alphabet (you can write their name) and have the kids paint with Q-Tips each letter.

This is a great activity that is little mess, and it is controlled.

It helps with pencil grip, name recognition, and focusing!

My 2 year old loved this activity as well. There are so many words you could have them paint.

Last name, sight words, spelling words, capitals, lowercases, etc.

Have fun with it and enjoy the quiet focused time with your kiddo! 

Fun Snack : Mosaics 2

So, my sister and I constantly battle over which is better. Goldfish (fishies) or Cheez-Its.

I love Cheeze-Its. Always have. In fact, there isn't a grocery list I have made that hasn't had them on there.

Well, they are $1.00 a box last week and I bought 20 of them.

Yes, 20 of them. It is true, I am obsessed.

For this activity, you only need two or three varieties.

I grabbed some scrap paper, drew a rectangle and let the kids make their own creations in the box.

The kids love to eat art.

  

This is the perfect activity when you need to be on the phone, because there was literally NO talking.

They were so focused on this project.

And, everyone can do it. Except for him. He would try and eat the paper. :)

Perfect activity for when you are watching a friends kid, or when you have time to kill.

Or in my case, when it is snowing and you just don't want to leave.

Sorry Utah friends. :/