Daily Checklist

I have recently discovered the website, Life As Mom. Not only does it have great tips for organizing your home, and homeschooling, she also offers a e-book called Organizing Life as Mom.
Well, I had to buy it. Anyone that knows me knows that I love to make list and (at least on paper) get organized.
My favorite sheet in the planner was the Daily Checklist. You can view the sheet here, (scroll down and you’ll see it as a picture).
This list has really helped me.  I used the e-book, and created my own list of things that I need to do. My list is in order of when (theoretically) I would accomplish each task. But I also like that I can do them out of order.
Here is my list:
Up and Pretty
Make Bed
Kids dressed
Breakfast
Unload dishwasher- and load
Clean counters and black table
Sweep
Gym
Lunch
Kitchen cleanup
Naps
Tidy playroom
Get laundry on
Daily chore
Get Jack from School
laundry to dryer
Dinner:_____________________
Kitchen cleanup
Make Jack's lunch
fold laundry put away
Run dishwasher
Tidy living room and play room
Set out clothes
Once I updated the checklist to make it my own, I printed 5 of them, and laminated them. This way I have a week’s worth, and can write on them as I think of things I need to do. (I have them for Monday through Friday, weekends are a different schedule…maybe eventually I will make a weekend one).
I use a dry erase marker to cross things off as I do them. I love the sense of accomplishment I feel for scratching things off.

Favorite Post of the week--#6

I love reading blogs. It gives me great joy and inspiration.

This week I am featuring a post from Oopsy Daisy.

She crafted a color book for her son. It is really cool. I am not a sewer, but this post could certainly inspire me to become one.

Please take a look, it is an awesome post!

 

Read and Enjoy!

Aa is for Apple Toddler Theme---Day 1

Now that Monkey has started Kindergarten, I have a great deal of time to work with Alligator.

 

I bought these bins from Wal-Mart for less than 3 dollars a bin.

They Stack and a re a perfect size for putting Alligators activities in. I love that they have lids that close, that way Alligator can only get into them, when it is time to get into them.

Here they are on our shelf.

When it is time to do “Tot School” I will bring them down and let him choose. I am only setting out 3 at a time. I have placed all the activities for the next week or so in this closeable envelope.

That way all the activities are ready to go. I can choose which ones to set out each day.

Today I set out our gluing sheet. Alligator really got into the gluing. He liked squeezing it out, but he wanted me to put the pictures on it, he was afraid of getting his hands in the glue.

He liked gluing so much, that we he wanted to do more, so I pulled out our letter A color and glue e-book that I bought from curr-click years ago. It is still available here.

The top 2 pages above are from that e-book. He also had fun sprinkling glitter on the ant page. I put the glitter in a bowl and gave him a spoon (so he wouldn’t have to touch it).

He also worked on matching colored beads and pom-poms to a colored apple page (this came from Confessions of a Homeschooler).

     

I don’t have pictures of him actually working on it because my camera was not functioning properly. (Apparently when a certain 2 year old threw it on the ground, it broke the mechanism that opens the flash, so now I have to open the flash manually…grrrr…)

The third activity we tried today was a capital A lowercase a matching. I printed the sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler, then wrote A and a on glass beads form him to sort. He wasn’t that interested in this activity, so we’ll try it again another day.

A Kindergartener?!?!?

As of yesterday I officially have a Kindergartener!
Monkey is in public school, this year. I can’t believe this has happened so fast!
 

I was a wreck, but he loved it!

Letter A sound gluing page

To go along with our Aa Apple theme. I made a sheet to glue pictures that start with the letter A.
You can download it here.

Basically it is just a page to glue pictures that start with the letter. 
The pictures I am going to use are found here, at home school creations.

Apple Play Dough Mat

More printables for my Apple unit.
I really want to get Alligator some exposure to playing with play dough. I think it is great for fine motor skills. So I created a play dough mat.

Here he can make apples and put them on the tree. He can also use the play dough to make an A or a, or to spell the word apple. I am going to put this in a sheep protector, and put it out with red play dough. I think he’ll enjoy it.
Feel free to download it here. Please leave me a message if you use it, I would love to hear about it.
Pictures of him actually playing with it, will come later.

Aa Apple sort

Monkey starts school 2 weeks from Monday. Hard to believe! I am in the process of planning activities for Alligator and I.
This is not an original idea. There is a computer game type activity on the starfall site, but I wanted a printable activity. There may be other printables online that are similar but I couldn’t find what I was looking for.


You can download the printable here.

I am going to print it, and possibly laminate it. Then have Alligator sort the Capital “A” and Lowercase “a” into the correct basket.
Leave me a comment if you download it, I would love to hear about it.

Stamps in the bathroom???!!!

You mean to tell me you don’t keep your stamp set in the bathroom? Really?
Well, lately I have been keeping our stamp set in the bathroom. It is the only way I can convince Alligator to let me brush his teeth. It still takes my husband and I working together to hold him still, but with the offering of a stamp he might begrudgingly willing opens his mouth.
Also, now that the boys get stamps for brushing, they remind me they need to brush, if I ever forget.
So…go find your stamps and see what your children are willing to do to earn one!

15 Minute Makeover-#3

Today I decided to do some work in the playroom. Monkey was feeling sick, so he spent much of the day in front of the TV, and Alligator was busily eating his lunch.
Here is the corner that I started off in.
After 15 minutes this is how it looked.

I was making such progress I decided to continue and work on the top of the shelving unit for 15 minutes.
  
After 15 minutes I got it down to this:

The cup on the top shelf next to our puzzles holds puzzle pieces that are found. Alligator loves puzzles, and he gets a little carried away. So our pieces tend to walk away.
Speaking of puzzles, the puzzle stand on the shelf, is the best purchase ever. I didn’t think I could use one, but don’t doubt just buy. It is truly awesome.
After that 15 minutes were up I continued working, the room was looking so good. I think I worked for another 15 minutes. And am so pleased with the results.
I bagged up 3 garbage bags worth of stuff to take to goodwill.

I cleared out some of the bins, and reorganized others. So excited about the transformation.
Still a work in progress, but so happy it happened!

Favorite Post of the week…#5

It is that time again (okay, maybe it is past time, but I digress).
My favorite post comes from Oopsy Daisy. It is a guest post actually, from the maker of Mommyopolis.
This post gives directions for making homemade apple lollypops. I might just have to try this, to give to Monkey and Alligator’s teachers for the first day!
Check out the post here: http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/08/apple-lollipops-mommyapolis.html
Read and Enjoy!