Planning for Starting School and other Activities

How we get ready for school:

o We randomly bought school supplies in order to have extras for the year & avoid the rush.
o We got out all the extra stops before the 1st day of school.
o I got all the clothes washed and set up for easy finding.
o Eye Doctor, Dentist, Check Up appointments to avoid missing any school--CHECK




Back to School Countdown

Cute Back to School To Do List 

If you want to print these images for non commercial uses, just right click and copy to your files or copy and add to Microsoft and stretch to fit, then print.

We went to Open House night last night.  It is great to go to so you can meet your childs teacher, get bus schedules, car rider information, PTO information, after and before school program(if available)information.  Also, to get a jump on all that paperwork. 

The Night Before.......

1.  Gathered back pack and school supplies and labeled
2.  I labeled & prepacked certain things so I only had to make the sandwich in the a.m.


Here is CentralFoothillsMommies' link to start your shopping: http://www.centralfoothills.mabelslabels.com/

3.  School Outfit- I set out a few options & let her choose what she liked.

4.  Shoes, hair accessories- Put with everything else so we don't have to search.
5.  Filled out paper work and got her school folder ready.....just incase lunch money...etc.
6. Went over school and classroom rules together.
7. Then the kids got to bed on time to get a GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP!

In the Morning.......

1. Got up early so there was time to get everthing done and have time to chill and wake up.
2. Had a decent breakfast to get her learning juices flowing.
3. Finished packing lunch.
4. We did a quick review of vowels and some grammar.
5. Brushed teeth, hair, and was outfit all set.  Time for the 1st day of school photo!

ALL READY FOR HER 1ST DAY OF 2ND GRADE!  =*(

On the car ride to school she read.....

Kayleis Book she picked for reading 1300 pages for the Summer Reading Program.

Back to School Activity

YOU COULD ALWAYS MAKE YOUR OWN TOO!

A Tear Jerking Back To School Poem for Mommas

Saw this poem on The Chronicles of Momnia . Check her out.

I hope all of our little ones and all the awesome school staff have a wonderful 1st day back at school, whether it is today or at a later date.  Homeschoolers included!

Traveling Tips with Kids

Traveling with kids is what we do every year. We take about a 12-14 hours drive from North Carolina to see my family on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Louisiana bayou area. It is really hard on us as adults, much less on our kids. Our kids have done pretty well over the years. I have found they were actually easier to deal with when they were really littler. As they get older, they seem to get harder to deal with during the drive. They were 3 and 7 plus a 9 year old during our last trip and they did pretty well. It is so hard being stuck in the car for that long. You try to save money by making and packing food, but then you just have to stop and stretch your legs and go to the bathroom. We drive straight down and try to stop as little as possible so we can hurry up and get there. Now on the way back we always stop at the half point, which is around the Atlanta, Georgia area. 

Here are a few things we took on our trip along with toys and coloring books to keep the kids busy.

Puzzles and a Letter Foam Cube Builder

Mad Libs for the Girls

They read us their funny stories while we were traveling!

Lego's a big WINNER!

I  packed the kids a few snacks so we didn't have to stop as many times.  They were happy to have their own little snacks and drinks.  I choose as mess free stuff as possible.  Pull top drinks, Apple sauce pouches, Fruit Loops, Teddy Grahams and Nutter Butter Bites. They only issue was they wanted to snack on all of it at the same time, so their little lunch packs emptied quickly. These were just their snack packs, we had sandwiches and other things in the ice chest.

The Kids Snack Packs for the Trip

Snack Pack on the Go

 Car Bucks for Good Behavior While Traveling

 I got the idea from another site about car bucks, but I didn't have much colored ink left in my printer. This was alright, because it let us make our own creation. I picked 3 colors of construction paper due to having 3 kids and no one could say so and so took my dollar because they each had their very own special color.  With that being said I found the happy smileys, printed them out and let my 6 year old cut them out.  I found a smiley stamper and stamped the corners for the "Corner Symbols."  Kaylei(6) had fun helping make them.

 Girl Good Car Buck 1

Girl Good Car Buck 2 

 Boy Good Car Buck

 Cat Dollr : )

Kaylei's version of a Car Buck



DIY Coloring Desk for the Car

I grabbed a flat from a 24 pack of water and let the kids decorate away.  I cut poster board to fit inside of the flat for more stability.

WHY??

Well....I was thinking the kids are always having to color crooked in the car so I made them their own little coloring desk!  They were able to put their book and colors in it without any falling on the floor! 

This past year....I have to admit we resorted to electronics, reading books and notebooks with crayons. It worked just fine as well. The only problem we ran into was the batteries dying and them not wanting to be done playing yet. What kind of tips or tricks do you go for when going on a long trip?

Diy Kitchen Chalkboard Door

The new trend seems to be chalkboard everything, and that is understandably so. I love chalkboard stuff. I even loved the chalkboard when I was in 4th grade. It was the oldest building in our school and had not be changed. It was actually the school building when my mom went to school and the school grew around it. That was a flashback moment there. We used to dust the erasers as a reward....lol. The things kids do to get out of class. I am in love with the chalkboard fridge and everything else on that little show...Good Luck Charlie. I know this because often times I end up watching more cartoons and kid shows than adult shows. Some of them are actually pretty entertaining.
Now, on to our project: DIY Chalkboard Door

Have you ever bought that really expensive chalkboard paint from the store and ran out before your project was done? I have and I just did not have the extra cash to splurge on another bottle, so I turned to what I had available to me. After the black chalkboard paint was purchased and ran dry I used black acrylic paint. If you look at the bottle you will clearly see that the black acrylic craft paint was the exact same thing so when I ran out of  chalkboard paint I painted the rest with the alternative.  Not to mention its half the cost and works exactly the same.  The kids love it and I think it looks pretty darn good.

 

My Painted Kitchen Door

The Girls Drawing Away

 Excuse the blue paint tape, we were prepping to paint the kitchen.

Completed Masterpiece

The only downfall I would say to this project is the huge pile of chalk dust at the bottom of the door. I love the way it looks and how much the kids like to draw on it. Chalkboard paint is pretty awesome and I plan on doing lots of projects with chalkboard paint in the future, so stayed tuned. Have you made anything with chalkboard paint? How did you like it?