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Work Routines to Keep You Organized
I’ve always been someone who leans heavily into routines and schedules. My type A personality loves plans and structure. Over the years I’ve found a number of routines that work incredibly well for me, so of course I have to pass them along! First, I make sure to set myself up for success on Sundays by reviewing my calendar for the upcoming week. It helps me solidify plans and appointments in my brain. This also helps me see where I might have some extra time in my schedule to fit things like grocery runs or other errands. If there is anything that I need to prepare for an upcoming event…
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Staycation Ideas for Adults
I’ve always spent the last few weeks of summer doing everything in my power to set my daughter up for a successful transition back to school – you can read all of my strategies in these posts: While all of this attention and focus is definitely helpful for my daughter, it leaves me feeling a little burnt out. That makes it even harder for me to get back into my own work routine. I spent much of last fall really fighting to get systems and schedules in place for myself. This year, instead of fighting the burnout I decided to embrace it. The first full week that my daughter was…
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Back to School, Back to Work
It’s been a minute! I’m so sorry to leave you hanging. August was a whirlwind and I found myself struggling to juggle all the things, so I took a bit of a blog break to really focus on being mom. It wasn’t how I planned for the end of the summer to go, but it was definitely what my family needed from me. Everyone is back to a more normal school routine now, so I can dig in for all of you and share what I’ve been up to! My focus this week is leaning into work routines and really setting intentions for the rest of the year. I’m so…
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Finding Motivation at the End of Summer
When it comes to summer I start out really strong – plans, structure, solid routines. Every year, without fail, it all fizzles out by August. Then we get really lazy and spend our days doing basically nothing. Sometimes pure laziness is great, but when back to school is just a couple of weeks away it can mean a brutal start as we force ourselves back into all of the routines and responsibilities that come with it. This year I’m trying really hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. For one thing, I’ve planned with this trend in mind. I started the summer with a little less structure and made sure…
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Preschool Collage Supplies
There are so many different materials that you can collage with. I’m a huge fan of authentic materials like gift wrap, newspaper, magazines and print advertisements, and old greeting cards. I also love to have some standard materials to mix and match with all of those authentic materials. Here are my go-tos (all links are affiliates).
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Benefits of Collage for Young Children
Collage is one of my absolute favorite art activities to do with little ones for so many reasons! It’s inherently open ended, and there truly is no right or wrong way to collage. As a teacher it is so helpful to be able to put out what ever materials you currently have access to – which is a great way to use those supplies that you always seem to have a surplus of – and know that children will be engaged in an activity with very little input from you. There are a number of obvious developmental benefits from practicing collage. These include fine motor skills like cutting, tearing, and…
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Preschool Bee Theme
I’ve shared some amazing ideas for learning about bees, but this is definitely one subject where the item being investigated can’t be easily brought into the classroom. Here are some bee themed materials that can be used to safely support learning. All links are affiliates. National Geographic Kids Bees Book Bee Habitat Honeycomb Ice Cube Tray Bee Science and Sensory Materials Beekeeping Dramatic Play set
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Exploring Bees in the Classroom
Bees are an excellent topic to explore in the classroom because so many children have a fear of them – and the best way to combat fear is with knowledge! That said, there is a reason to have a healthy fear of bees, being stung HURTS and for some children being stung can come with dangerous allergic reactions. Many preschoolers have never been stung by a bee, so they don’t know if they’re allergic or not – which adds to the uneasiness surrounding bees. All of this means that bees are a topic that requires additional safety considerations when being studied in the classroom. Here are some ways to safely…
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Preschool Theme – Bees
Children have very strong opinions about bees – usually related to the fear of being stung. That’s understandable, most adults spend a fair amount of time warning children to stay away from bees so that they don’t get stung. There is so much more to bees than their defense mechanism though. They’re a super important part of our ecosystem, which makes them a great topic to explore in the classroom. Here are some easy printable activities to support children’s learning in this area. Click on the picture for more information.
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Summer Science – Ice Tie Dye
My daughter and I tried ice tie dye earlier this summer and it was such an easy way to create really awesome tie dye art. Usually I’m NOT a tie die fan because you just can’t avoid a serious mess. Ice tie dye was totally doable with minimal mess. Here’s the idea – You either band the item you want to tie dye just like you usually would OR just crumple it up for a different look. Then you set the item on a baking rack and balance the entire rack over a bin (you’ll want something to catch all the dye as the ice melts). After setting all of…
