Homeschooling

Creative Coffee Crafts

October 15, 2013 By Thaleia 7 Comments

Creative Coffee Crafts

What better way to involve your children in your coffee ~~addiction~~-I mean habit- then to allow them to have fun making a creative coffee craft. There are so many fun things you can do with coffee filters and coffee grounds that I thought a quick round-up would help. I asked some very helpful friends from Kid Blogger Network and got a ton of great ideas.
If you recently switched to a Keurig and now have extra coffee filters, then you have come to the right place for creative inspiration. If you are like me there’s no way you’d throw the old coffee filters out. What about all the things you can do with coffee grounds? Have you thought about using your coffee grounds for a craft or project around the house?

Maybe you are not the creative type, but would love some “green” craft ideas to do with children. You have come to the right place for creative coffee crafts featuring coffee grounds, coffee beans, coffee filters and even coffee cans!

Coffee Ground Crafts and Activities

Tea and Coffee Sensory Tray

Coffee Filter Crafts and Activities

Pipettes and Coffee Filters

Rainbow suncatchers

Coffee filter sunflower

Coffee Bean Crafts and Activities

Coffee Can Crafts and Activities

Stop by the Warm Up to Fall Keurig Giveaway.

Daily Coffee Time Equals Marriage Time

September 29, 2013 By Thaleia 1 Comment

Daily Coffee Time Equals Marriage Time

In honor of National Coffee Day today, I decided to write a post featuring a couple that we know that enjoys daily Coffee Time.

I want to introduce you all to our friends, Rob and Meghann. We have known then since we first got married and moved into a large house that was converted into three apartments. We lived upstairs and Rob and Meghann lived downstairs. We were all newlyweds at the time.

Fastforward to 14 years later and we are still friends or friends again. We all have children now and both families homeschool. Meghann and I ran into each other over the Summer while I was still pregnant. Since they live in town we both thought it would be good to get our children together. We meet at the local park and played for an hour or so. Then headed to Rob and Meghann’s house for popsicles and more playtime.

Rob got home from work and announced it was COFFEE TIME and would I like an iced coffee. I said sure I wouldn’t mind trying one. This is when I found out about the Daily Coffee Time that Rob and Meghann have had for over 15 years! They started Coffee Time while they were still dating.

We were just over yesterday for their daughter’s birthday and Rob was getting tired. So once again Coffee Time was announced and any adult present was offered some iced coffee. I opted out this time, but boy wish I hadn’t since Rob made it extra special with cool whip and flavoring. Above are Rob, Meghann, and youngest child! (Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy. All I had was my cell phone:)

No matter what craziness happens during the day at work for Rob or at home for Meghann with FIVE kids they take a break late afternoon for Coffee Time. They spend time catching up on the day which has been a great marriage strengthener for them.

I promise to share some of Rob’s famed recipes once I get them, but for now enjoy some recipes for coffee that I pinned!

Linked up with:

Do you drink coffee? Do you have a daily marriage ritual?

Please share anything coffee or marriage related. We would love to hear your story!

First Fall Nature Hike

September 26, 2013 By Thaleia 3 Comments

First Fall Nature Hike

I love nature and love Fall! Since the weather was just right to put on long sleeves and the sun was out, we headed to a local bike path. This path runs just south of where we live and along a river as part of our county’s park district. The diversity along this path is great for impromptu nature studies. (We have NOT been along this path since it was cold enough for winter coats and their were snow flurries out!)

We found all sorts of nature goodies along the way! We saw a small waterfall from the stream that flowed into the river. We saw a variety of butterflies like cabbage whites and painted lady’s. Princess discovered a walnut right around the first bend. Lil’ Red found a leaf as big as his head! Eldest took pictures of goldenrod and other plants for me. I found some sort of mushroom which I want to add to my list of things to learn about.

We also discovered how few nature tools where in our van and that we would definitely want to pack one of our nature packs for our next nature adventure! We own all sorts of tools like binoculars, magnifying glass, bug catchers, bug boxes, dip net, and butterfly nets. We had NONE of these supplies which would have been great to catch the tiny thumb-sized frogs that hopped across our path! Princess was very upset that she couldn’t catch one!

What is your favorite season? Do you take impromptu opportunities to head outside when the weather is nice? What things do you see?

Preschool Prep: Learning Letters

August 28, 2013 By Thaleia 4 Comments

What is Preschool Prep?

Do you have a young child or two who has outgrown Tot School and is ready for Preschool? Have you looked at all the free online choices during your preschool preparation? Does thinking about preschool curriculum make your head spin? Well, I know that the amount of free “Letter of the Week” and “Themed” curriculum is astounding.

I am creating the Preschool Prep series to help other moms and caregivers out! I have spent lots of time researching and planning for Preschool for Lil’ Red and I want to pass on this wealth of knowledge and resources to my readers!

I plan to share a variety of ideas and ways to prepare yourself, your environment, and your child for preschool in a multi-part series. I could create a super long and over whelming post with tons and tons of ideas, but I do not want to add frustration to your Preschool Prep situation. I want to share ideas for learning letters, numbers, colors, shapes, name recognition, character studies, etc. I will share with you very simple activities you can create yourself or some items you could look for during garage sale season. I am hoping to lessen your time and the amount of money you spend by sharing what I am doing.

(Disclosure: There may be affiliate links within this post. The links provide a way for us to support our site and provide great ideas and content to you! Thanks for your support.)

Preschool Prep: Learning Letters

Learning letters can mean a wide variety of things to each and every parent or teacher. You may want to focus on why your child needs to learn their letters. The obvious to recognize their name. The not-so-obvious to allow them to feel the sense of accomplishment in learning something new!

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Preschool Prep: Learning Shapes

August 21, 2013 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

Preschool Prep: Learning Shapes

Do your children enjoy learning shapes? Maybe you have not started or are just introducing your little one to shapes. Children can enjoy learning shapes by fun repetition. Check out this Preschool Prep post all about Learning Shapes!

What is Preschool Prep?

(Disclosure: There are affiliate links within this post. The links provide a way for us to support our site and provide great ideas and content to you! Thanks for your support.)

Learning Shapes

There are so many ways to teach your child a new concept. I find the easiest is to incorporate a new skills or idea into everyday life. For example my children love graham crackers so I ask if they want one big rectangle or two squares. I break the graham cracker into squares and show them both a rectangle and a square. If we have Ritz crackers we talk about circles,etc.

Hands-on: One of the simplest ways to teach your child shapes is by giving them LOTS of hands-on practice. Start out simple with a circle and square and build up from there.

Provide lots of ways to play with shapes. We purchased wooden pattern blocks to use with free printable pattern sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler. (The free form shapes below were created by Eldest age 9).

Shape sorter: Please DO NOT give away your shape sorter thinking it’s a baby toy! I know lots of parents who make the mistake of giving away or selling their “baby” toys when their child turns three, BUT wait! Can your child use that toy to learn an important preschool skill? Shapes sorters are great for spatial reasoning, counting sides, tracing the pieces, stacking the pieces, and so much more.

Create your own Shape games:

Flashcards: Obvious I know but what can you do with flashcards to make them more hands-on or concrete? Find objects to match with them. Talk about same and different.

Worksheets and Dry-erase Sheets: