Monday, April 12, 2010

Quick Share : Traveling with Kids

image via here

We're now officially planning a summer vacation. While I do consider our family to be seasoned travelers--two cross-country roadtrips, several 8-10 hour trips, and a couple flights with teeny ones--it is always good to review some info and tips for traveling with children.

I really like the ideas from Simply Modern Mom.

I want to hear your favorite travel tips--for car or airplane or any other vehicle. I could always use a new website for printing off travel games.

Read More...

Friday, April 9, 2010

15 Minutes : Play It : Handwriting Activities

image via here
My son and I have been focusing on improving his handwriting. For the sake of review, I print out a basic tracing worksheet of a certain letter. Somedays we choose a worksheet that has a picture; others he wants a word search. When he's finished with that, we turn the paper over and he lists and draws other pictures that begin with the same letter. Since he's often a reluctant writer, I've been trying to discover ways to encourage him. Today this worked: He loves filling papers with "roads"--continuous lines that swerve, curve, and veer. So, I tried describing the letter he was writing as a road for his car. "First the road is straight, then, oh no, the road suddenly turns the other way! And then it's going back this way again." He loved it.

I find our basic tracer page (with picture) at First-School.ws. The site is kind of painful to navigate, so here is letter A for you; you can then find the rest of the alphabet from that page.
(On the chart, I choose from the Handwriting column, SB--meaning standard block style, and then ask my son which picture he likes.)

Here is our tracer page that comes with a word search. Same site, same messy story.

What handwriting sites do you like? How do you make this kind of practice more interesting?

Read More...

Thursday, April 1, 2010

15 Minutes : Make It : Easter Printables

A few free printables I found for Easter:

A paper basket from Freshly Picked. I know I've said it before, but my daughter loves paper crafts and teeny things of all sorts. This will be tomorrow's afterschool activity.

A simple card from the talented Olliegraphic (remember her beautiful Valentines?). I really like that her designs have cutting guides on them.

Tags or small notecards from babalisme. Don't you think these are boyish enough for my sons to give to teachers and grandparents?

Read More...