Make: Thankful Trees

This great idea was shared by BEV. You can visit her regularly at her blog, Sweet Tea and Sass.

Thankful Trees

Here’s a fun, simple project to do with your kids, or grandkids. 

Materials needed: 

A sheet from a large drawing pad

Markers

An egg carton

Several tubes of finger paint

Package of sticky googly eyes. 

My grandsons went with brown for the trunk of the tree, but you might want to let your child use his imagination. Imagination is fun! 

Have them trace their entire arm, or help them if they’re a bit too young, opening their fingers up at the top of the ‘tree’. The arm will form the trunk and the branches will be formed by the fingers reaching up and out. 

Once the trunk and limbs are drawn, they can dip their finger(s) into the finger paint, making ‘leaves’ on the trees. We used a lot of fun colors for this part, and layered the leaves on top of each other. We even added some that had fallen on the ground. 

When the leaves have dried, the kids can stick a pair of googly eyes on each leaf, two for each member of their family, or even for other things they might be thankful for. Grayson added some of the characters from Star Wars, and one for his great-grandmother, who is in heaven. Caiden added family pets, and friends. I helped Grayson with some labeling of the leaves because he’s just learning to read and write. 

The front of many refrigerators are not magnetic these days, but a piece of tape will easily remedy that.  

The googly eyes, added to the boys’ foreheads, are optional but they sure had fun wearing them the rest of the day, as we went out to lunch and ran errands 

Manage: Taming the Family Calendar and a GIVEAWAY

 Winner is Comment #7 (www.random.org): KELLI

Congratulations!

By: Bev

It wasn’t that long ago we had a houseful of kids, and a full calendar to match. Three kids, busy with all sorts of activities, was a challenge to keep track of.

I bought a large, refrigerator-style calendar, skipping the type that had a nice picture and instead going for one with large blocks. It was our only calendar, and I was the only one allowed to write on it.

Each family member was assigned a color. Dad was green (he brought home the paycheck), I was red (the heart of the home), daughter #1 was pink, daughter #2 was purple, and our son was blue. I bought highlighters in those colors, and put them in a magnet-style basket that was attached to the fridge, next to the calendar. Any activity – a sports practice, cheerleading practice, football game, orthodontist appointment, sleepover, birthday party, was written down on the calendar in non-smearing ink. Then I ran a streak that matched the family member whose appointment it was over it. 

A white marker board might work well if you can post it high enough that little fingers won't smear / erase it.  I could easily see, even from across the kitchen, if anyone needed to be anywhere at a specific time.

Simple, inexpensive – who doesn’t love that? - and it worked for over twenty years. 

It might tame your calendar too.

Wanna win a free set of Sharpie Highlighters to start taming your own calendar? Enter by leaving a comment below. Winner announced Saturday morning. 

Motivate: 64 Crayons and Back-to-School Shopping

Shared by: Bev

August, when summer is coming to an end, and school is just around the corner. As a child, I always loved the start of the school year, new Big Chief tablets, #2 pencils with pink erasers, and a cigar box to hold all my supplies. The one thing I really, really wanted was the big box of 64 crayons, with the sharpener built in the side. With six kids to outfit for school, there wasn't money for any unnecessary extras. I didn't mention it to my mother, and took the little box she handed me without saying a word. The box that didn't have fun colors like fushia and turquoise. Mine had plain old blue and purple and red. 

So jump forward 35 years, and I'm shopping with all three of my kids, for school supplies. Two of the three weren't that thrilled that summer was about to end, and within days they'd be stuck back in a classroom seat, having to sit still and be quiet. Looking back, I can see that the fun of choosing school supplies was probably all that sparkled for them, when it came to the thought of climbing back on that bus, and walking into a classroom. Our kids were about 7 years apart in age, so the older one needed folders and notebooks and a calculator. The middle one wanted fun spiral-bound notebooks that had the latest pop-star on them, and sparkly pencils with her name on the side. The last one - a boy - well, the store shelves didn't hold anything that could get him excited about returning to the classroom, to another teacher who was bound to be completely worn out with him by Christmas break. 

The discontent, the mumbling and groaning and complaining, grew with every aisle. Like most parents shopping for school supplies, our budget was stretched thin, and my patience was growing thinner by the minute too. Feeling like I was trapped with a bunch of whiny, grumbling kids, embarrassed by their less than wonderful behavior, I quit asking for any input, just threw a bit of this and that into the cart, and headed to the checkout. 

As I began to unload the cart's contents onto the belt, one of my children went into meltdown mode 'I don't want to go back to school! My teacher is going to hate me. And I didn't even get the smelly markers I wanted.'

Instead of going back in my memories, to a little girl about seven or eight years old to whom a box of 64 crayons was supremely important, I had my own meltdown.  I yelled loud enough for anyone within several aisles to hear me, "I am NEVER taking all three of you shopping again!" 

Oh for do-overs. Nobody wants to be 'that woman' shopping at the discount store. So here's a heads-up idea: make it a special date with ONE child. Leave the others at home. Just the two of you go out for a hamburger, or ice cream cone, or whatever. Then let them help choose their school supplies. It'll give you precious time with your child, help them learn to make decisions, make them feel valued and ensure sweet memories when both of you look back someday. When I shared, a few years ago, with my own mother, that I'd always wanted the box of '64 crayons with sharpener' she said she'd had no idea. Being at the store with five siblings, there was little chance of being heard. One-on-one time is a gift, for you and your child. 

Mid-Week Laugh: Dirty Mouth Vacation

So excited to introduce our newest contributor:

Click image above to learn more about Bev. 

"Dirty Mouth Vacation"

Our oldest daughter and her family had just returned from a week's vacation out of state. It involved miles and miles of traveling in the car, and time spent in a hotel. We were at the dining room table with our three grandkids, getting the play-by-play of the vacation, with each kid adding to the conversation as it went along.

Four-year-old Addie told us all about her imaginary friend. Caiden, who's just about to turn nine-years-old, shared how much he had enjoyed riding a horse, alone, for the very first time. Then almost six-year-old Grayson piped in, "Did you hear about the 'F' word?"

The conversation came to a standstill. Grayson's Papa very calmly said, "No. What happened?"

Grayson looked at both of us, with big, beautiful, blue eyes, and said with a very serious face, "I frowed up."