Blog Archives

Taking The Time To Slow Down

6/30/2015

I met my husband online almost 18 years ago ... he lived in England and I lived in the US. After six months of calling and emailing each other everyday we decided to meet in person. I flew out to England and he gave up everything he had there to come back home with me.

We were married a short time later. He and I never once looked back and wondered if we were making a mistake. He is everything in the world to me and I would be lost without him.

Last week he became seriously ill and I began to fear the worst. All the things we had planned on doing together and never did because I was always too busy hit me like a ton of bricks.

I had been living life at such a crazy pace since I began teaching twenty years ago. There never seemed to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that I wanted to get done. But did I really need to get everything done? Was the world going to fall apart if I didn't complete all of my daily "to do list" goals?

As I sat in the hospital I made a promise to myself that I was going to slow down and change my priorities. All of the "someday we will do that when I have the time" became "I have the time now".

I'm cutting back on teaching for a little while and there will be some changes made to my website. I will no longer post a daily printable ... art project ... or learning sheet. I will instead be posting those items straight to the blog so be sure to check there for the latest materials added. There will still be new free and membership printables along with new videos and teaching ideas. I hope you can understand why I am making these changes.

Thanks to the excellent care my husband received at the hospital he was able to come home yesterday and will begin his recovery. I feel so blessed that we have been given more time together.

I am usually a very private person but I wanted you all to know what was happening and about the changes I am making. If you've made it this far thank you so much for taking the time to read this post!!

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July Number Tracing Calendar

6/26/2015

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July Number Tracing Calendar For Preschool and Kindergarten

I have posted July's Number Tracing Calendar and Calendar Numbers along with other July items to my free printables page (if you do not see them at the bottom of the page please refresh your browser).

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Easy To Make Frozen Paint

6/25/2015

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We made frozen paint today and it was so easy to make. It only requires two ingredients ... cool whip and food coloring. If you do not have cool whip any brand of whipped topping will work. The topping is usually found in the frozen section of the store.

Easy To Make Frozen Paint For Toddlers and Preschool

The first step is to put cool whip into each of the six sections of a muffin tin. Do not overfill as you will need room to stir the cool whip and food coloring together. I used about 12 drops of food coloring in each section and stirred the mixture together until it was a solid color.

Once the cool whip and food coloring was all mixed together I put the muffin tin into the freezer to freeze the paint. I only left it in for an hour or so and it was a nice consistency. We did our painting outside so the paint melted quicker than it would have if it was used inside.

The paint was really thick and smooth even after the sun had melted it a bit and the colors were vibrant. The children loved helping to make the paint and also painting with it. We will definitely be making this paint again!!

You can see a video of this recipe by clicking below:

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Paint Brush Color Match and Clip

6/17/2015

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I made a paint brush color match and clip activity as we are still working on developing color recognition skills. I printed out the paint brushes and paint cans on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them. I set the brushes and cards out in a basket along with clothespins for the children to use.

I made the paint brushes and cans in twelve different colors and separated them in the basket. Children find the paint brush and paint can with the same color and clip them together with a clothespin. We really like working with clothespins because they are great for fine motor skills.

You can can also do the color match without using clothespins by laying the paint cans on a table or floor and having the children put the matching paint brush on top of the can.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking below:

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Weekly Printable June 15th - 19th

6/15/2015

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Paint Brush Alphabet Match For Preschool and Kindergarten

Paint brush number match available in the member's section.

The free daily printable this week is Paint Brush Alphabet Match which is a great activity for letter recognition and review. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper ... cut them out ... and laminated them.

I designed two sets for this activity so you could have your choice of which you wanted to use. One set has the paint brush and can for each letter that is the same color and the second set has the paint brush and can different colors.

In this activity children put the paint cans on the floor or table and put the matching paint brush on top of each can. You can do a lower to lower ... upper to upper ... and lower to upper match. You can grab the patterns for free until Sunday June 21st ... after that they will only be available in the member's section.

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Weekly Printable June 8 th - 12th

6/8/2015

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Ice Cream Number Sequence Sticks Math Center For Preschool and Kindergarten

Ice cream alphabet sequence sticks available in the member's section.

The free daily printable this week is Ice Cream Number Sequence Sticks which is a great activity for number recognition and review. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and cut them out. I then glued the ice cream cones onto craft sticks and set them out in a container.

In this activity children put the ice cream sticks in numberical order. If you make two copies of each ice cream cone you can also do a number matching activity. You can grab the patterns for free until Sunday June 14th ... after that they will only be available in the member's section.

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