Take back your Turf Thursday-12 ways to use left over socks

Sock bandits in your house? 
I don't know how it happens but my kids lose their socks.The dryer eats them,they never make it to the hamper but mysteriously they cannot be found anywhere! I got so tired of it that I went and bought them socks and hampers to hang on the door.But they have to tell me or turn in their dirty socks to me before I will give them another pair.They were excited to get new socks and so far it seems to be working. It has become part of their bed time routine.

So this brings me to my next point and that is what to do with all those leftover socks.

1.They make great dusters for you or for little hands.This is the number one favorite use for them.
2.Mop with them.The kids on occasion have worn them on their feet to ice skate while cleaning the floor
3.Use them as sock puppets.
4.They are great to start a game of snow ball fight indoors and soft too
5.Make sock stuffed animals as gifts for people having new babies or cousins or nieces.There is a cute one I  want to do of an owl so stay tuned.....
6.Put tennis balls in it to make a great massage tool for your feet or knots in your neck.
7.Use them to hold go-gurts or ice.
8.Make lovely sachets for your drawers or our kids stinky shoes.Dryer sheets also work for this too.
9.Use as a De-stress-er.Give a bag of socks to the kids and let them toss them and jump around or whatever they an think of.
10.I have found my kids on occasion to put their treasured things in there or use it for a bed for a doll or animal.Then there socks become mismatched ha ha
11.Make rice packs to ease those sore muscles.
12.Pack fragile things in them or put them around them for extra cushion.

What do you use your mismatched socks for?

Fairy Tale week

Once upon a time there was a Princess Lexi and Prince Corban and Rowen.They were learning there Royal letters F,G and H.

They had a  Magical Ball of Music and movement and some finger plays. We made funny faces.F for FACE.




Lexi was excited to read about another Princess.The Princess and the Frog.F is for FROG.We found some fun activities to do @ first-school.ws

We printed out the book on the site provided @ first-school.ws.Then we colored the pages.Alexis had a lot of fun doing this part.There was also a printout for paper dolls.So there was a lot to keep the kids busy.
 

Next I decided, so they could get the most out of their imagination, to hang up each page with string and clothes pins.




Maybe we will have frog legs for dinner?..........................................................................I think not.

Take back your Turf Thursday

My room is really coming along.I have officially made my bed for this whole month so it is officially a habit! I have one thing throwing me off and that is all the clothing and I still have things in bags. I have a trick I will share with you later about how to go through your clothes.I have washed all the babies clothing and it will fit in the ottoman but my husbands clothes must magnets because they keep coming back.Solution? Option 1:Get rid of clothes.I have no idea what will fit me till after the baby.Plus I can pack or get rid of all the maternity clothes.Yeah! Option 2:Buy more hangers to hang up shirts that is taking up to much room in my dresser.I still need to find a solution for my Jewelry.My suit case is also packed for the hospital.

My frozen meals are coming a long I am way excited about that!So far, I have frozen broccoli and cheese soup.I made double batch of spaghetti sauce,extra meat for easy cheeseburger pie, and some meat for Mac n cheese and salsa.All snug in my freezer.

Tonight I used my slow cooker to cook 8lbs of chicken.We had salsa chicken with beans,corn and rice.I made double batch of that.Then the leftovers will be for lunch and to make enchiladas.I hope to have enough to make a double batch of enchiladas.I also made chicken tortilla soup and I made a double batch of that!
They will go in the fridge because I learned that if they are not cooled all the way you get those nasty little ice crystals.I also learned to freeze everything nice and flat and then you stack them in your fridge like an accordion so it doesn't take up too much space.

The great thing is that I have done this 2 different nights and it really hasn't taken me that long.

Letter H-Hellicopter

Sometimes when I am preparing my lessons the kids want to help and then they know what is coming so I try to read stories or do something and they want to play with what they helped with.Today was one of those days. They saw the bin with the cotton balls.I have seen a lot of people using sensory bin of cotton for snow but for my purposes they were clouds and I hid ABC cards in there with bobby pins on them.Then I took the boy's helicopter and tied a string with a clothes pin and a magnet taped to it.I am pretty simple when it comes to my crafts and things that we make.A lot of these ideas came to me late last night while I couldn't sleep.



Exploring the cotton balls first.
 


 Then I gave them clothes pins to work on those fine motor skills.That is when there imagination rally took off and they were making recipes and grabbing different utensils.


 Lexi stretched the cotton balls out to make burritos and bacon.
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Here is a helicopter I made so we could talk about shapes.

Here is another thing I made for counting practice.They could put the counters in the circles.


Lexi practiced her number writing.

She decided instead of using the counters she would write the numbers to count.

We used the cotton balls to count the clouds.

Rowie loaded the cotton balls up on his truck.

Letter G-Good night Gorilla

I am running a little behind on my posts so this is last weeks lesson.How many of you have read Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann to your kids?

It is such a great book for any age.Even a two year old can read along with the words and tell all the animals good night.

We read it many times last week.We counted the animals on each page.We found the mouse and talked about what her was doing. We even talked about the different colors of the cages.I made keys for them to match with each color.

Next we printed out @ homeschoolshare.com

The kids colored the pictures of the animals. The printout had each of the animals.It had a Gorilla,the Monkey with the banana,Giraffe,Lion,Armadillo,Hyena, and Elephant.Well Lex did I had a very non cooperative toddler to deal with that day.He just wanted to throw the crayons. They then could use the book to match up the pictures and put them in the right sequence.

 

Take Back your Turf Thursday

Well I am happy to say that I got rid of whatever did not belong in my bedroom which was a lot of the clutter in front of my closet.The foot of my bed where the ottoman is cleared but it is in constant battle of my husbands clothes finding their way back there!It really does help to set a timer and then just go! When it beeps you are done!

I also found baby clothes for when our new arrival come in 23 days! We are getting excited! So I will put those clothes in the ottoman for the first couple of months till he moves in with the boys.Oh yes and we bought a bed!!! So happy but still can't sleep with the back pain and the baby so we will see once he is out but its a memory foam and so far it is like sleeping on a cloud.

My dresser is getting there but I have a lot of Jewelry which I have an idea where to put but I don't know if I am in the project mode or not.We will see.Do any of you have suggestions on keeping the clutter at bay on your dresser.It is a dreaded flat surface! Ahhhhhhh

Also I have started freezing meals for when the baby comes.I see that a lot of people do a month worth of meals on a Saturday but that is not the root I am going.Last night I made broccoli cheddar soup and doubled it.I pulled out the amount I wanted to so that it wouldn't disappear into my families mouth. I will post my list at a later time but I am really excited about it and should be able to have about a months worth when I am all done.I am just going to do it in small increments instead of all in one day. Wish me luck! Have any of you tried freezing meals?What did you find that worked and didn't?

What is a problem area for you?

Snow day and fish play!

It has been an interesting day for me and the kids.This morning I got a call from the school saying that due to the snow there was no school! That has never happened before! We received  over 30-40" of snow.

 
 
We started off our day with a fish toss game that I got from homeschoolshare.com




 
 
We tossed a goldfish and when it landed on a number that is how many crackers they would get.I had to cut off the consumption after a while so we used counters after that because they were having so much fun with that.


 
Next we graphed how many different color fish they got.Alexis had more yellow fish than Corban.

I want to encourage my children to write stories it is something I have always liked to do and hope to publish some in the near future.They could pick any of the words beginning with the letter F or just write their own.To spark their creativity we read.The Rainbow fish and the sea Monster's cave.By Marcus Paster


 
During quiet time while Rowie slept they wanted to color pictures of fish.

Our craft where I found all over pinterest or at least the basic idea is to trace their hands.Then I adapted it to having them tear up paper and glue it on the hand like scales.Who doesn't love ripping paper? Then we colored other fish and glued them to the paper.We did 6 to represent the number for the week.

Take back your Turf Thursday

Its a new year.It can be a fresh slate for all of us.Why is it evyone is so motivated to make changes in the New year?Why not all year long?Either way I am very motivated this year.With the new move I was able to get a clean start at this house.There are still many boxes to be opened but I will only do that if there is a home for it.My strategy for getting each room done is to think of it as moving day.What would you keep?What would you store or get rid of? I got rid of a lot of things because I didn't want to pack it.                                
 So going along with this packing theory you pick a room and break it into sections.First you go through the things you don't use very often.Then things you only sometimes use that can be in a box.Last are your most often and daily things.These are the last you want to pack until the other less used items are sorted.                                                                                  
Next is for you to write down what the room is to be used for.Since I am choosing my bedroom I want to use it for rest,relaxation and a place for my clothes,jewelry and a few books.Right now everything is in limbo because I unpacked other areas of the house first.I want the boxes gone so I have already done the packing part of the room.Next I need to decide what to keep,store,trash,oordonate.There should be a box for each one.I have seen this idea everywhere!I am breaking this month into weeks.                                                1.work in front of the closet.                                                                                               
  2.front of my  bed in which i have a storage ottoman covered with stuff.                                                        3.dresser and a place to put my jewelry.                                                                                  
4.Put my headboard up,vaccum,dust and make a spot for baby clothes.                              

 It is important when making goals to break them down into smaller more managable ones.I could even break it up day by day.Thursday I will let you all know how it is going.This thursday I have already made a dent in front of the closet.What is your room you want to tackle?Maybe bring in a friend  who will help you be ruthless.I think I may even buy a new bed set to celebrate when I am all done.

Letter of the week F

Hi! Welcome back all my fellow bloggers and friends.It was great to spend time with family and now we only have less than a month till our baby boy arrives! I will try to do as much in that time frame.I am also going to try to doTake back your Turf Thursdays again at least till the c-section.....yikes!

Today we talked about the letter F.We read about Fire trucks.The kids really got into making the siren sounds.We talked about fire safety especially since we are in a new house.

We used Richard Scarry's Best Rainy Day Book Ever for our Activities today.It had these cute little vehicles you could color,cut out and then paste where the tabs were and fold where it told you to.That is it!The rest was up to my children's imagination!