Getting Kids Excited to Read: Read Everyday Jar

Summer Reading Ideas

Whether your child loves to read or avoids it...here is an easy way to encourage daily reading.

A Reading Jar.  It's full of simple ideas for making reading fun. Pull out a slip each day to find a fun place or way to read. They might read in the shade, under the table, wearing a hat, eating a snack or with mom...all kinds of little ways to excite them to read each day.

Read Everyday Jar

3 printable pages of ideas.

Reading Printables here.

Print, cut and fill up the jar.

Enjoy!

Preschool Resources

Looking for good Preschool-Kindergarten teaching resources?

 I was and am so excited with all I found.

The teacher in my has been itching for these years to come and now with a very interested 4 year old, we have started Preschool.  

He loves it and he loves "practicing" at home.  

So I have searched all over the internet and Pinterest to find free and quality printables for Toddlers, Preschool and Kindergarten work.

And these were some of my favorites. 

Oopsey Daisy Blog 

This Site is full of great Learning Packets.  They include printables, activities, songs, snacks, and so much more.  It plans everything for you!

1 Plus 1 Plus 1 Equals 1 

has a For Tots page, with great resources. The Totally Tots section is full of printables and units for every letter and lots of fun themes.

Confessions of a Slacker Mom 

This site has tons of great printable units full of worksheets that also integrate religion.

Preschool Printables from Owens Family-Gwyn

has creative printables from books, by season, and topic. It makes planning the year simple and fun.

Preschool Alphabet  

This site has great printables and units, as well as, a year plan, with calendars and simple lesson plans already laid out.

Living Life Intentionally 

has tons of fun free preschool packs.  All types of homeschooling ideas.  It is an excellent resource.

Confessions of a Homeschooler.  

Her title says it best.  She has all kinds of great ideas and printables, with plenty of experience.

Mine for the Making  

a great site with lots of toddler and preschool printables.

Wild About Teaching 

has fun printables, projects, book based lessons for free.

But she also offers Large Packets for purchase.

Creative Preschool Resources 

great collections of printables.  Fun units with letter practice, sorting, cutting, numbers and much more.

Super Mom Moments 

has free worksheets, fun activities and printables for everything even kid parties.

Education.com 

offers tons of worksheets & activities or all ages and subjects.  The one drawback, you must register.  Registration is free, but it is just less convenient than some other sites.  But the quality and selection of the resources, makes it worthwhile.

Kids Learning Station 

has tons of great worksheets, varying levels and subjects.

Amazing Worksheets 

This site is full of worksheets for every subject and level...not just preschool.  A wonderful resource for all of your kids.

Rockabye Butterfly 

is great for young learners, lots of hands on learning, with printables and activities to teach beginning basics and discovery.

Little Family Fun 

has great learning games, art, and projects for Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Lessonpix Blog 

is a great website with lots of resources.  Their blog has free ideas, lesson plans, activities and printables, and if you want to be a member of their website, they only have a small membership fee.

I hope these are helpful and be sure to let me know if you have any great sources you love for Preschool ideas, resources or printables!

Summer Fun

Well its summer and school is out, the weather is nice...or hot...

but either way we have been out finding all kinds of new ways to play.

Because so many of the ideas I have seen around were such a hit with my boys and the neighbor kids, I figured I'd compile our favorites and share!  Any other ideas you might have, be sure to comment...I'm always looking for more activities to keep the boys busy!

Here are a bunch of Fun Summer Activities for kids. Lots of easy and inexpensive ideas to keep any kid busy for hours.  Great ways to cool off, entertain, or just try something new!

Since we live on a bit of a hill, this was a big hit for the kids.

I found it at Camo and Bows.

15 backyard games from IMOM.COM

Here are some fun printable Scavengar Hunts found at Smashed Peas & Carrots

More Scavengar Hunts (indoor, outdoor, walks, colors, etc) I previously posted Here.

This was a great idea for all ages. Found over at Parents.com.

A fun twist on the idea, add some glow sticks in the bottles and make it night bowling.

Simple fun from Counting Coconuts...

we dumped ours upside down out of the container and them then hit away.

Hit the balloons into the baskets.

Parents.com had this fun idea...and 19 other fun activities.

Come Together Kids had this simple but ingenious idea.

You can buy the container at Walmart for 5 dollars.  

This can be purchased over at Chasing Fireflies...

or we just used Hula Hoops and Dollar Store Balls and it was a big hit.

My boys loved this!  Just be sure not to inhale...

super easy directions found at Betz White

50 things to do with your trampoline!!!

From really simple, to fun entertaining and night ideas.

Check them out at Rave & Review

One Charming Party had some great ideas for the outdoors and entertaining.

With tutorials and cute decoration ideas.

Fun Water Games from Create My Event

And if you have little ones, this is a collection of fun, easy things to do with toddlers.

All of which are a big hit with my little guys.

Found at Mixie Studio

And for when its just too hot outside here are a few indoor activities to keep the kids entertained...

What kid doesn't like playing with Homemade Gak.

Lil Luna shares the recipe to make it yourself.

Homemade Silly Putty from Making Memories with Your Kids

Mommy Savers had this fun idea.  Freeze colored water in Ice Cube Trays.

Then drop them in the tub and let the kids chase them around the water.  They slip out of their hands making a fun game and slowly add color to the bath water.

Bath time paints are also fun, Team Dischinger has an easy recipe to follow

or use food coloring and shaving cream for a fluffy paint... I will post about it soon.

This cute little idea came from Pigtails & Tutus.

And be sure to look through her blog it is full of tons of fun ideas for kids year round!

Kids Tape Race Track

It's summer time and I'm loving it.

But there are times we need some quiet play in the house, so I can get things done.

(My kids aren't old enough to play unsupervised outside...yet.)

And since cars are a big favorite at our house, I tried changing it up.

Instead of using our old car mats and tracks...we made our own with tape.

We made them on the carpet, the tile, in the bedrooms, etc.

After a little trial and error I decided:

Masking tape for the tile, because the blue painter's tape peels of too easily...even from the tires of the cars.

And blue painter's tape is best for carpet...it doesn't stick as well, so it doesn't leave any residue on carpets of pull up the fibers.

But this was a huge hit and it was cheap and quick with materials we keep around the house.

The only draw back...my kids don't want them removed, so we'd keep ours for a few days and we got several confused looks and questions from visitors.

linked to:

Free Printable Kid Scavenger Hunts

Here are some Kid Scavenger Hunts.

I made them to buy me a little time now and them while keeping their minds working.

*Click on the picture to save and print*
I placed mine inside a plastic sheet protector and use dry erase markers.
This way they can be reused again and again!

For younger children they just check it off when they are done...for those a little older I have them see how many of each object they can find: 

 Color Scavenger Hunt find one thing in each color...

or see how many things in each color you can find!

Shape Scavenger Hunt

same idea

Number Scavenger Hunt:

Find something with the number on it

or find that many of a chosen item.

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt:

same idea!

I also created some Outdoor Scavenger Hunts to keep the kiddos busy...

One for the yard:

And one for taking a walk:

Kids Travel Car Mat

This Felt Car Mat is the simplest project I think I have done yet. 

You just need about ten minutes plus some:

Felt, Scissors, & Hot Glue.

Using a sheet of green felt as the mat.  I cut out some simple road, parking lot, dirt, and water pieces and hot glued them on. It was embarrassingly easy.  And no it is not the fanciest car track, but it has hands down been my son's favorite of all the projects I have made. 

So I got the basic idea from Serving Pink Lemonade.  But I made mine so it rolls or folds up easily.

I tuck it and a few cars in a small ziploc baggie or just in my purse for appointments and restaurants

and he loves it.

And I highly suggest looking over at Serving Pink Lemonade, the car mats she shows are so cute and sturdy.

keywords: Felt Car Mat, Travel Car Mat, Kids Car Mat, Simple Kids Car Mat, Tutorial