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Gift Guide for Toys to Keep Kids Moving

Before I dive in to great toys and activities to keep kids moving, a disclosure: portions of this post are sponsored.  I’ve received a form of compensation in exchange for featuring some of the items in this post; however all opinions, experiences, and bad puns are 100% my own. With kids’ birthdays sneaking up on you, and Christmas being a close -um- nine months away, it’s time to start pondering gift ideas for the kiddos in your life.  If you’re like me, you may be looking for toys and activities that promote getting active, rather than passively sitting in front of a screen.  While I’ve already mentioned games and activities for preschoolers, these toys are geared more for an older crowd, say ages 6 – 106.  😉 Here are some great gifts to keep kids moving, both indoors and outdoors: (Laser) Tag! You’re It!   My kids, particularly my son, enjoy a good game of Laser Tag, and have really dug the Laser X we got for Christmas last year.  We have recently added a few more L...
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Chicken Orzo Soup

Although we still have some warm days ahead, the cold autumn weather is peeking around the corner. The other day, I simply couldn’t get my fingers to warm up, so I knew it was the perfect night for soup! So, to the pantry I headed for inspiration, where I found a box of orzo. Lo and behold, the box had a simple recipe for chicken orzo soup. Naturally, I had to take the recipe and tweak it to make it my own. ….and because it forgot to mention garlic in the ingredients. The best part of this chicken orzo soup? Not only did everyone eat it, but they all said they LIKED it! That’s an extremely rare occurrence these days, so I’m claiming this as a victory, which means I’m sharing it with all y’all!
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Getting Ready for the First Day of Kindergarten

Starting kindergarten is something I’ve gone through twice already with my own kiddos, and there’s definitely some things you can do to help prepare your kiddo for kindergarten, aside from simply ensuring they’re ready for kindergarten .  Getting your child ready for the first day of kindergarten can help make the day, and your morning, go smoothly.  Here are my best practical tips for making the first day of kindergarten a success! Getting Ready for the First Day of Kindergarten
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Summer Activities for Young Preschoolers

As a preschool teacher, I’m frequently asked about ways to help facilitate learning and growth at home, particularly what activities for young preschoolers can parents work on at home.  During spring conferences with my two-year-old class’s parents, this question is second only to questions regarding potty training .   Trust me, I get how long these summer days can be, and being able to fill your child’s days with meaningful, age-appropriate activities can make or break your summer.  (or winter break.  Or spring break.  Or ….Tuesday!)  So what are some activities for your young preschooler, or any time of the year, to do at home?
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100+ Sensory Table Ideas for Your Preschooler

As a preschool teacher, I’m always looking for ways to spice things up in my classroom, including new and fun sensory table ideas.  Thankfully, an amazing coworker created a master list many moons ago, and shared it with me as I was starting out. Whether you’re a preschool teacher, or a parent of a preschooler, you’ll appreciate the diversity of a good sensory table.  Sensory tables provide an opportunity for preschoolers to experience a wide array of fine motor skills, as well as some gross motor skills, all a sensory-rich environment.  Don’t have a full-blown sensory table for your home or your classroom?  Remember, water/sand tables make great sensory tables, too! Also, the sensory table ideas listed below can be mixed and matched for whole new levels of experience.  Toss in tools to assist in manipulating the items in the table, such as cups and measuring spoons for pouring, tongs/kid-friendly tweezers, and scissors for snipping and cutting.  Also, you...
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Car Games for Kids

Morning car rides can be daunting if you’re not a morning person, and sometimes even if you ARE a morning person.  Although I believe it’s perfectly ok to let your kids be bored, I also believe it’s important to use moments together wisely.  So we tend to spend our morning car ride having conversations, and playing kids car games that help wake them up and keep them on their toes, AND it’s all done sans technology!  Here I delve beyond “Punch-Buggy Charlie” and the license plate game for some good no-tech car games for kids. Car Games for Kids 20 Questions  –  We each take a turn coming up with a person, place, or thing.  Then the other participants take turns asking yes or no questions to figure out what it is.  If we figure it out before the 20th question, we win; if not, then the person answering the questions wins.  This is a good exercise in making deductions and also figuring out good “category” questions.
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The End of Summer

This was supposed to be the summer of many things. Just like every other previous summer, I started concocting some pretty grand plans for summer 2017 with my kids. I’d planned to work a little bit each day teaching my rising 3rd grader her times tables, using a fun program I used when I was a public school teacher. Instead, I randomly quizzed her verbally. I’d planned to work with my rising kindergartner on learning to tie his shoes, since shoes with laces are mandatory for him. That didn’t happen at all. I’d planned to try out all the cool awesome places around Atlanta I keep hearing about (and -um- some of which I’ve featured here ), but we didn’t.
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