Build A Better Blog Challenge

The SITS Girls are hosting a really fun blog challenge to build a better blog in 31 days. I decided to jump on board seeing as the motivation of the group will continue to push me to put my best foot forward.

If you don’t already know, The SITS Girls are, “A group of more than 6,000 woman dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments”. To be honest though it is much more than that. The SITS Blog features many interesting articles about blogging and every day they feature a blogger and showcase their best posts. It is so great to be introduced to new blogs and be immediately taken to the best posts on that blog.

The SITS Girls ProBlogger Challenge features ProBloggers e-book called 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. Each day you are given a task that you need to complete which will help you create a better blog. I purchased the e-book. (There is a discount code for the e-book for anyone who wants to participate in the challenge on the BlogFrog Post). The best part about this challenge is that there are already over 250 people that have signed up to participate… imagine having that kind of motivation?

We will all be motivating each other on Twitter as well as on BlogFrog.
If you are here visiting from the Challenge post you can add me to your twitter here: funwithmama

The challenge starts on July 19th. After having a look at the e-book, the information there is so informative that it is definitely worth checking out.

Since it is an e-book and I generally like to jot down my ideas on paper I created a Task Challenge booklet for myself to ensure that the ideas keep flowing (no matter where I am).

I thought it would be really helpful if I shared this with my fellow SITS Girls who also like to jot down their ideas on paper. I feel that this will make the challenge so much more organised for me.

Here is what the pages look like:

To download click on the image above or here: Build a Better Blog To Do List 

I printed mine out and then binded it with my bind-it-all. You can punch holes in the page and add it to a binder or even more simple, staple the pages together.

  Disclaimer: The 31 Days To Build A Better Blog Challenge is brought to you by ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse and the SITS Girls. The only thing here that is by me is my  to do list. The above to do list does not contain any direct information on the e-book itself.

Tracing Practice Printable Worksheet

 

I created a tracing practice worksheet for Deen today which he really enjoyed. The theme is to help the babies find their mother.

All your child needs to do is draw a line from the baby to the mother… this is fairly easy but it is a great start to tracing and your young child will be very proud that they can accomplish this task and help the baby animals/fish.

 

Deen finished it really quick but he still liked it… I think I need to make it a bit more challenging for him but for a child slightly younger than him it would be a great introduction to tracing.

I’ve decided to share this printable with my valued readers.

To make this activity reusable print it out on paper and then laminate it.

If your child seems to be easily distracted and not able to focus I would cut each pair out to have them match the animal/fish one at a time.

To download click the link or the picture below.

Download Tracing Practice Worksheet

Birthday Reminder Printable

Be reminded of your child's friends birthdays in style with our Birthday Reminder Printable.
Anyone else have trouble remembering birthdays and want a great visual reminder? I made a birthday reminder calendar page that you can print out.
Older kids would love to put this in their school notebook so they can easily jot down their friends birthdays.
Moms would love to print this out and put it on their fridge. You can add up to six friends birthdays per month.

I made two versions... one is a simple version for my Fun With Mama readers.


Click the picture above to download or click here

and here is one I created for my new business fans(more about my new business at a later date).

Click on the picture above or click here to download/save.

All you need to do is click on the birthday reminder picture above to save or download
Click Print.
Click Best quality and print away.
Trim off the excess white parts(Or leave as is).
This page looks great when printed on card stock. Put it on your fridge, in your child's school notebook, or use prestik to stick it to the wall.

Want to make it reusable for years to come? Laminate it after printing and use an erasable marker so that it also becomes waterproof and extra durable! :)

Would love to know if you use this! :) Leave a comment!
Have a great day!

Ladybug Cut and Paste Activity + Printable

I made a Ladybug Cut and Paste Printable activity for Deen and my readers today. This activity can be made easier or harder depending on your child's age. I've included 3 pages to this activity.

The first page is for the youngest kids, just cut and have them place the spots wherever they want on their ladybug.

The second page requires more concentration and precision. You want them to place the dots on the white spot as best as they can.

And the third page is if you have a child like mine who wants more spots! :)

Click here to download/print this activity.

Print the page that you would like to use or print them all.

I suggest printing on "Fast Normal" to minimise on ink usage.

The one on the left is printed as "Fast Draft". It uses the least ink but the picture doesn't look very nice. The one on the right is printed on "Fast Normal" and the colors look great.


I then cut out my circles with my 1" scrapbook circle hole punch(it made this so quick and easy!). If you would like to practice on your child's cutting skills here would be the time to give them a pair of scissors and have them cut the circles out as best as they can.



Then glue the dots to the ladybug.

After we were done with this activity Deen had fun cutting out extra circles by himself


I hope you find this printable fun and useful for your child. :) Enjoy!

For more fun printable ideas check out Abc and 123

A Fun Cut and Paste Printable

This activity was inspired by the Kumon first work books. Deen was doing the cut and paste activities in his Kumon workbook and seemed to really enjoy it. The only problem was that we were getting through the pages really quickly and it would be too expensive to purchase another book. I decided to try making some of the activities myself and thought I'd offer them to my readers to try.

Download by clicking the following link or the picture: Cut and Paste Printable Activity


Cut out the pieces and either have your child add glue to the bottom of the shapes or to the white space within the pictures. They can then place the coordinating piece into the right spot. Younger children may not be so precise in placement but this will help them practice. Older children will probably concentrate and try to align everything perfectly.

If you would like more of this type of activity sheets or have any suggestions please let me know.
I will post pictures up tomorrow of us using the Bingo Colors and this cut and paste activity.

Bingo Colors Printable

I wanted to help Deen learn his colors while still having fun. I do believe in "learning through play" which is when I decided to create a Bingo Colors game. We haven't had a chance to use it since Deen took an extra long nap today but we will definitely make use of it tomorrow. I've created a printable for my readers to download as well if you wanted to help your kids learn their colors: Bingo Color Game

I've included four bingo color cards and 8 name cards. Stack the name cards in the middle and turn the card over to see which color is revealed. Whichever player has that color on their card should place a marker. Whoever finishes their card first is the winner.

I know that I could have made the color cards larger to include more colors but I felt that at this age group (approx. three) the kids attention span may not be up for it. If you have an older child have them play two cards at once.

How have you helped your child learn their colors?

I'd love to know if you end up using the cards :)

Elmo cut and paste activity + printable!

Deen loves Elmo so today we did an Elmo cut and paste activity. (I cut the shapes since Deen is still too young to cut circles).

We were having glue malfunction... the glue just did not want to come out so we kept sticking a pin in it... Deen loved sticking the pin in the tiny glue hole.. He did such a great job with it. I was impressed.
Deen's Elmo is on the right. I had him bring out his Elmo toy and he placed things accordingly on the paper and glued it on.

Here is sad Elmo... if you have sticky velcro it would be a good idea to put the sticky velcro onto Elmo's face and his smile and you can have your child interchange them when teaching emotions... or better yet, when your child is upset... Ask them to show you how they feel on Elmo.

Want to do this Craft with your child? Here is a printable... (Or click on the image to go to link)



We were actually planning on doing an elmo painting activity today but I did not have the materials on hand so we will be doing that soon too.

Lets go fishing! (+ printable)

This fun and easy to make fishing game provided us with a lot of fun today. This activity is great for hand/eye coordination.

Materials needed: paper plate, foil, paper clips, dolly pegs or any type of stick (or even an old marker), blue card paper (i used poster board paper), string, and small magnet.

First print out the fish images on cardstock (or normal paper and laminate). Print two copies so that there are more fish. Ive included a fish printable here

Fold your blue paper in half then in half again. Cut along the folds/creases.

Wrap foil around plate and tape blue paper pieces together till it fits right.
** You can use glue now if you like to secure the foiled paper plate to the blue paper (optional)

Cut out fish pieces and write their points on the back. I used 1 and 2 points and just chose them randomly.


Add paper clips to the fish.


I used a dolly peg as the fishing stick and tied a piece of string around it as well as around a small magnet.
(For younger kids make the string shorter than for an older child since it is easier to control with a shorter string.)

You can use a stick from outside(twig), old marker, or even an old magnetic fishing game stick that you have lying around instead.


At the end of the game have the kids tally the points at the back.


This activity was inspired by The Ultimate Craft book

Open Ended Art - Yummy Jellybeans Mosaics And Printable

The theme for open ended art today was beans. I figured this could also make a great learning opportunity so I made some shapes in Photoshop elements and filled them in with the colors of the jelly beans. I printed on cardstock and cut them out.

Here is how I set up the area for when Deen woke up from his nap.

He was thrilled when he saw this activity. The jelly beans on the right of the table are the ones he's allowed to eat. (Otherwise we wouldn't have had any jelly beans for this mosaic)


When we were done he tried to get rid of waste... (by eating the jellybeans!)


Here is his finished mosaic shapes.


I notice that he knows his colors very well. He can see when something is in the wrong spot and he actually tries to teach me... which is funny. He intentionally put a green jelly bean on the yellow triangle and he was waiting for me to tell him something is wrong... I ignored it...acting like I didn't notice... so then he goes
"Mama.... look here..."
Mama looks.
"something looks wrong here mama... what do you think it is..."
"hmmm... looks fine to me Deen..."
Deen moves the jelly bean to the right spot.
"see mama.."


This was such a fun activity that both Deen and I enjoyed very much!

Make your own jelly bean matching game

Here is a link to a printable of the shapes. You can use these in many ways... :
Print two copies and use it as a matching game.
Print one copy and do a color matching game with items in their toy room the sale color. (Pom poms, beads, toys, etc)
Print one copy and have your child match the shapes with other items that are not the same color.

Printable - Fruit and Vegetable Cards

Please link me if you use it in Tot school or just as an activity, I'd love to see! :)
I made some Fruit and Vegeteable category cards that I'm sure will be very useful. There are 5 pages (2 pages each of Fruits and Vegetables and 1 instruction page). Print the pages, cut out, laminate and then have your child categorise which one is a fruit and which is a vegetable.

New Printable - Food Pyramid

I've added a food pyramid printable here.




There are 4 pages:
page 1 - instructions
page 2 - food clipart and labels
page 3 - blank pyramid
page 4 - completed pyramid

Teach your children about the food pyramid by showing them where each item goes. Kids or mom can cut the food pieces and place them on the correct spot on the pyramid.

Free Printables - Color Theme

I've decided to start offering some free printables to my readers. I have found printable pages so helpful on other blogs and would love to share some I've made with you. Thank you Susana at Our Homeschool Fun for helping me figure out how to get my printables online.

The first one is for cutting and gluing with a color theme. Deen loves to paste so I can't wait to use them this week. Since he is still young I will cut them out for him then arm him with glue and paper. For older children this can work on their cutting skills as well.
I've included the primary colors ( 1 page each of yellow, blue, and red).
Click on image to download.


The next one is a color word search. Click on image to download.


If there is enough interest I will definately offer more and would love some suggestions on what types of printables you would like.
There will be a printables link on my sidebar for easy access. (if only i could figure out how to get the black border.. hmmm...

I hope your kids enjoy them.

Update:
Here is ours in use
I printed them out ahead of time and cut them up. I put a coordinating color paper clip and put all the colors in a ziplock bag. I could then easily take them out whenever we had a few free moments, when I needed a few minutes to myself, when he was bored, or when I just wanted to teach him his colors.

This activity definately doesn't need me to stand with him so its an option to keep him busy while I cook.

Here's the finished product