Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Hey hey happy Monday!

I am sitting here, getting ready for another week of virtual school and watching emails come in from Z's Kindergarten teacher which reminded me I made a promise to share Teacher Appreciation gift ideas! Gift for these incredible souls doing so much on the other side of your computer.

Here are a few ideas:

Jeni's Ice Cream either a gift card or actual ice cream!

Flowers, always a good idea and I have loved these Farmgirl flowers so much.

A video of your kiddo sharing 5 things they love about their teacher or reading her a book or singing a song. I swear to you this will mean the world.

A homemade card, our teacher sent us her address and told the kids if you write to me, I will write back. A homemade card would be awesome.

A gift card, think of all the supplies, books and special things you teacher has bought out of pocket, not just during this time but during the year. A small gift card is always appreciated, we poll money together with all of the parents and our classroom teacher buys her a gift card. Think, Amazon, Target or Staples!

An insulated coffee mug! I love the yeti and think its a great gift for these teachers doing so much and some even managing their own kids virtual learning!

Hand creams! I am partial to the clean and safe products like this Beautycounter trio but something like this they will always use!

Leather notebook! is a useful thoughtful gift for a teacher in your life!

I love this printable that you can add the kids names to. It's so sweet. This is for sure a year teachers will never forget.

This candle is funny and cute, if you know your teacher is a candle lover this may be a hit!

And this personalized Starbucks cup!! Again this will only work if you have your teachers address which I am sure you can get to send a little something. I may do this one for her and a couple of my teacher friends, so cute!!!

Another cute printable! And I have a friend that does these printable stickers for wine bottles with her kids pictures on them, genius! These may be what I am doing for end of year gifts, may have to hand deliver it!

These teachers are super human and doing the impossible with virtual learning. It has honestly been an honor to watch how much goes into making my little ladies brain work. Hard for us but can you imagine them, how much they have to adjust and change.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to make a teacher in your life feel as special as she is!

xoxo

Natalie

Things To Do This Week That Don't Require Screen Time

Ok so last week felt like a trial run, I had Zoe home with me for Thursday and Friday but this week we are in complete quarantine mode. So I thought I 'd share this list of things that don't require screen time but let's say this together "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH SCREEN TIME" and we will be using it as we see fit or as needed.

I am treating this time as an opportunity to learn, have fun and BE TOGETHER. I want them to simply remember the time together, the fun and not the thoughts that are currently keeping me up at night. But also having a list to refer to will help me as I plan out a little schedule every day. I really hope this helps get you through each day.

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1. Pick a subject and spend time researching it, I did this with Zoe and would pick out library books, print print outs for her with facts or coloring sheets and crafts. Spend 30 minutes a day on this subject this week!

2. Bake these dino muffins or boxed muffins or what what just bake something!

3. Take all of your old magazines (or like in my case, ones you have not read) and rip out pages, give them scissors and sheets of papers so they can create a story collage and then have them either write or tell the story.

4. Plant a garden (we got this little kit but Target has a lot of them or seed packets) or repot all of your plants, we are doing both of these!

5. Make a list of people you want to send a card to and work down the list, Zoe will be writing some letters to go with these cards.

6. Family puzzle, we are going to start a puzzle!

7. Have a designated game time, I let each of the girls pick a game and we set out our snack and play all together. This post has our favorites, I am going to add a few more we have now.

8. Take a big box and put out all the supplies for "rocket ship" making class. google some ideas for older kids and let them be in charge of the creative direction. This is a good one, seriously just search kids rocketships on Pinterest.

9. Water play, either give them bowls or a container or get them in the bath with a few cups and strainers. This post has a bunch of bath time tools that keeps them in longer. I love to diffuse some oils when they are in there and use the floor as my "office"!

10. Let them wash the dishes, we keep all the kids bowls, plates and utensils aside and let them girls take turn washing them. I put a towel under the stool and just prepare for a mess.

11. While you clean out all of their winter clothing, have them clean out their stuffs or small toys, I offer up 50 cents for every toy they want to give to a child with no toys. I give them a keep, donate pile and let them do it with no stress from me. Zoe is my hoarder Ami is easily convinced. hahahah.

12. Make a sock puppet! glue, pom poms, buttons, paint, felt and beyond.

13. Decorate your door. I got the ideas from @makermint I drew Happy Spring in bubble letters and let them trace the letters with marker and then they each used markers to draw "things that made them think of Spring" (Ami drew a volcano in one of her letters, hahahah we read a book about volcanos last week). And tomorrow I will help them cut them out and hang them in our hallways wall for all of us to see. cute ideas here! I may add some cute stuff like this door but I'll trace the pictures and let them color them in with letters or pictures.

14. Build a fort, (we love this kit) give them snacks, flashlights and let them have reading time in the fort! Or even just coloring or our favorite eye spy books or give them some free-play time!

15. Obstacle Course, we did this with our tunnel, stepping stones, sit and spin and bouncy ball with handles. I told them I would time them to see how long it took they could do it (but really I just wanted 10 minutes of "move your body" before lunch.

16. We will be doing 20 minutes (or more) of Spanish every day. Is there a language you have been wanting to introduce or learn yourself? This is a great time to do a little time every day of it. This post has some printable and a ton of activities I will be picking from this month.

17. Listen to an audible book or music (bonus points for it being in a language you are wanting to learn!) while playing with kinetic sand or play-doh.

18. Have a family member teach a lesson! Ok so this is screen time but FaceTime someone that will do a math lesson, or language or that your child can read to! And seriously schedule daily FaceTime's with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc.

19. Scavenger Hunt! We are going to do this with shapes around the house, pick one a day that they have to take their sketch pads and draw everything round they see or everything green (like we are doing tomorrow!).

20. Do something you are interested in. Seriously, do you love photography and have a camera? Do you love to paint? Do you love to sew? Do you really enjoy organizing or decorating, have them join you in something you enjoy. For me it's my plants or making a space pretty/organizing, or cooking in general. Today they made smoothies and kale chips, helped plate their own lunches and as simple as it sounds, it's something they will remember doing WITH YOU.

I will also say, remember to stick with it!!! It takes a bit to get use to a new routine and this is not only hard and new and confusing for you it is the same for them. Even the littlest sense the change. So keep it up. Get dressed, brush teeth and have fun with it.

Here was todays schedule, I'll continue to add the schedules here the rest of the week and post on Instagram.

Next up for my posts to help you during this social distancing/ homeschooling time is a resource list, a place where I can link other bloggers fun ideas, different free resources to get print outs, apps or online schooling. All of this to just be there for you because this is what I always envisioned my blog as, a place to help other mamas.

Lot's lots to come so keep on coming back, and if you subscribe you will get an email overtime one of these posts are live.

I also promise to keep up with other fun content, like what I am buying for Spring, some yummy/fast meals and maybe even I'll get a chance to finish decorating the living space, kitchen and bedrooms.

we got this.

xoxo

Natalie

35 Busy Time Links For Kiddos When Your Home During Coronavirus

In this time of uncertainty and social distancing I am trying to create a routine for the girls. And since I truly enjoy the crafting and activities I thought I would share some of the tools we always keep on hand to keep them learning and busy, some ways to keep your kids busy during this whole social distancing.

I love these containers to plan out a few busy boxes, especially for when I need the girls to keep busy/keep me sane.

Here is a whole Pinterest Board on busy boxes that the girls both really enjoy.

Painting is a huge part of our lives over here, we LOVE it. We have these water colors (but one day I'll try the paste set for color mixing) I just stocked up on water color paper (on sale!) and I also got the girls these table top easel's & added some brushes

You can also paint with tempura paint, which the girls love this too.

We also really enjoy a work book, I usually get from Costco or BJ's but these Kumon 10 Minutes A Day Books (we have the 1st Grade Math one and Spanish one)

and we got this Kumon Set last summer.

The School Zone brand ones are also great, we have subject ones and also the PreK and First Grade one.

For beginning reading we used these BOB books and I cannot recommend them enough!! We will use them again with Ami this summer.

I have this book I used with Zoe as a supplement to what she learned in Kindergarten and I swear it was key in her learning. I'll use it with Ami again (I started around 3.5 - 4 with Zoe).

And now it's just important that Z has books she loves to keep the reading going. She loves an autobiography, and these National Geographic ones & Who Was are her favorites (current obsession anything to do with Martin Luther King Jr.) I am thinking this American History collection may be on our list of gifts for her.

And these Little Leaders books are also really great, for Ami I read out loud and she loves the photos, but lately Zoe has been reading to her during quiet time and it's quite frankly my favorite.

These My Weird School chapter books are hilarious and easy to read out loud to both girls, we also love the Magic Tree House set (these are also on audible!), I cannot Wait to start the Boxcar Children or Harry Potter with her!!! Whatever it is get them books that you keep out that would interest them. She reads for 15 minutes in the AM and 15+ minutes in the PM.

Educational Games, are also a fun way to keep kids screen free, entertained and learning. I have this post on our favorite family games.

Zoe loves Math War, ThinkFun Math Dice Junior Game

This stories one is a favorite to play with our neighbors

Acorn Soup one

Sneaky Snack Squirrel

Love this yoga one to get kiddos up and moving too.

Matching Dominoes is a great for multiple ages

And let's not forget good sensory toys like Kinetic Sand & Toys ( we will be putting this in our water table but you can do this in a plastic container to contain & store) this is is also an awesome deal. We love these water beads, these fidget pop toys are also great, can be used in the kinetic sand or water (they were in my bath time post), we love these play scarves, this parachute has been a huge favorite for years (great for younger kids but Zoe enjoys it too.

We also really love anything to keep them moving while indoors. We use to have this little trampoline (may need another), have friends that have this bouncy house (can we fit this into our apartment??!), Balance Board and Balance Stones are daily favorites to get them moving in doors.

And sometimes, (like just now as I wrote this post) you can clear a table, put a bunch of scrap paper, washi tape, painters tape, glue sticks, all of the things in this bucket (love that it can store everything organized) and any boxes from your recycle bin. And the only direction is, build something. Ami will usually just glue and cut, and tape and then paint but today she had a "happy sail boat in mind"! Love little creative brains!!

Hopefully these are helpful as you go on to planning for the next week!

xoxox

Natalie